No coolers, just cash @ the FCPC and a Fuel K.O.

For those of you who continued to come back looking for something new to read last week... I just wasn't into it, but I thank you for your continued interest and wish there was more to say. After beating myself up all week, I've finally got something positive to reflect on. I'm not one to bring the party down, so if there isn't something good to write about, chances are, I won't be writing. However if it's poker related and I think I need some advice from my peers, then I'll usually put something up for the purposes of feedback.

I have commited bank roll suicide. To the point where I'll have to reload just so that I can pay Chad for our upcoming fantasy football league. I'm almost positive it's not a keeper pool, which can alter a person's drafting strategy greatly if you think about it. Anyway, how have I committed BR suicide you ask? Well it's pretty straight forward... TILT!

So needless to say, my BR tilt has held me back from coming up with anything good to write about. The fact that I bubbled the freeroll just sent me off on a wild 7 days of donklalism. I was looking for anything to throw my hard earned roll at. Rebuys, FTOPS, SNG's, cash games... you name it, I donked it. It got to a point where I just had to say enough was enough. I mean I didn't go broke, but it sure felt like it. I've decided to take an online break and concentrate on live games (excluding home cash games). I know it is only a matter of time before I start to show some consistent gains again, until then you'll just have to read about whatever else comes to mind.

Lola and I went to Bishop's Restaurant last night. It's already been 1 year since I saw my beautiful bride walk down the isle in the back yard poolside setting of her parent's house. I chose to surprise Lola and made the reservation a month ago after getting advice from my pal the food critic Fuel55. He's was bang on with his suggestion and it was a very special night. Thank you JV.

Nothing much to report on with golf. Although I am playing in a tournament this Wednesday here via an invite from our bankers. I haven't played the Canal course this year, so I look forward to that.

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Ok so I guess I should actually write something that relates to the title of this post. I made my third visit to the False Creek Poker Club and finally have something to show for it. When I first got the invite from JV a few months back I didn't know what to expect. He likes to go on about how it's a room full of donkey's... but I just didn't see it that way (but maybe that's because I fit right into the donkey persona). Of course I have witnessed some horrific calls and moves, but that seems to be pretty standard these days in a live game. The competition overall has been nothing specataular, but at the same time there are some really good players who all seem to have a good grasp of mid level thinking and tournament strategy.

Since this was another Big Stacks 11 person "SNG" type of tourney I decided to employ some of my tighter strategies throughout, and didn't really get into any situations where I would have to make a call for my tournament life. In fact I can recall at least 2 situations where I had to lay down what I knew would be a race situation. I wanted to make some money, that was my #1b goal. #1a of course, was to win. I don't plan on ever sitting down at a table not trying to win the whole thing. It's just a matter of picking the right spots, with the right hands. I found myself laying down a few preflop hands that I normally may have pushed with in the past. If someone pushed back at me, I would let it go, knowing that I was facing a 50/50 or 60/40 call.

Employing tighter starting requirements early was the key to setting up my image (as always). So on the first hand of the night I was dealt A6o and decided to raise it up in MP. LOL, sound confusing? That was the point. I wanted to show aggression early as well and let people know that I wasn't going to be laying down and rolling over. Nope. So with only one caller in the first pot I managed to bluff my way to a nice small early chip lead that allowed me to observe and lay low for about an hour. Fuel noted that I "must have had him beat" since I pulled out a c-bet and second bullet on the turn with only Ace high. Wrongo, but I guess he had nothing too. His range is quite large in what he likes to call "a table full of donkey's" so you just never know what he's holding. I saw him win a really nice pot with 10-3 spades against a guy who had to pay him off on the river after checking his turned flush. It was pretty cool to watch. Fuel's got some pretty tricky moves... noted. In fact I would later forget to value bet the river and probably left some money out there. More on that later.


Another comment that he made early on... "always bet your sets guys!! That is how you win big pots"... noted. I decided that I could probably use that against the table later on... little did I know it would be against none other than Fuel himself.

So we're still 11 handed and the blinds are now up to about 150/300. I get dealt 88 UTG. Limp (sometimes I will raise here, depending on the stage of the tournament obviously). This time I had JV on the other side of the table (which was much better than when he was on my direct right for the first deep stacks). It folds around to JV who is in late position and he raises 3x (he's doing this at least once per orbit, if not twice, and calling raises in position often). Both blinds call and I call hoping to hit gold.

The flop comes out Q-8-7 rainbow. Both blinds check and I quickly check as well hoping for the C-bet. C-bets seem to be so mandatory these days. I don't know what it is, but everyone in the poker world seems to represent something whether they've missed or not. Now I am not putting Fuel in this category at all, but it is interesting to note that it seems the the C-bet is getting less and less respect these days. Noted.

So after I check my set, Fuel pushes his 15K stack into the middle... I could barely control my excitement. However, with two people to act I couldn't exactly insta-call. I played it cool and tried to come accross as if I was planning to fold. Hoping to induce a three way where someone just couldn't let go of TP. The SB folded (Cathy, who eventually made it to HU) and the BB (Kent, who they kept calling the new guy, although he had been there twice as much as me so far) eventually folded after stating that he did have a Queen (if I recall correctly). I insta-call and Fuel flips over 10-9 off for the OESD. He misses on the turn and river and I send him packing. He loses a last longer bet and is gone less than 5 minutes later. I did feel kinda bad taking him out, but on the other hand it felt good to play what I think was correct poker after hitting my set considering the circumstances.

I asked him earlier this morning if he minded if I posted the hand and his response was "expose my fishy ways all you want" LOL which isn't really the response I was expecting. As we all know, that man can play poker and outplay most of us here in bloglandia. Just an untimely move against a deceptive sneaky donkey.

After that I held the chip lead for the next hour or so. I didn't get too involved with anyone and stole blinds minimally. The blinds got up to 1000/2000 and we were down to about 8 players. Three hands in a row I raised 3x the BB. The first hand AKs - I get reraised all in by a middle stack. I fold. The second hand I get AA and everyone folds. The third hand (UTG) I raise with 99 and everyone folds. So in three hands, they are all playable, and I manage to break even. In hindsight I should have probably limped the aces... noted.

So after not getting any action with my raises, I decided I was going to limp the next big hand I was dealt. I get KK on the button and two to my left (they call him 240, he is the guy that cracked my QQ with AA last time) pushes from the SB with Q5d. My Kings hold up and I still have a nice lead.

I get A2o in the SB. It folds around to me and I min raise to 4,000. The BB calls and we see a flop of Q-2-x (2 hearts I think). BB bets small, I call. I'm not going anywhere in a battle of the blinds. The next card is a 2 (lucksack). I check, BB bets again and I min-raise. He calls (quickly). The river is a blank (non heart) and I push all in for his remaining 8K. He thinks about it, I try to act weak. I even do a bit of the hand shaking to sell it a bit further. After about 3-4 minutes he folds saying he has a Q. I think I could have value bet a bit on the river and had him call or come over the top on me. I really think I left a few chips out there.

After shaking my head for a while (but knowing I got lucky on the turn) I decided to stay tight and just let the push monkey's bad beat each other. Sure enough, two hands in a row AK gets cracked by a weaker ace and we are down to 3 and I was actually third in chips at this point.

The rock (Kent the "new guy) is on my right and Cathy is on his right. We battled back and forth for a good 20 minutes. I am folding and folding and getting nothing to call with. I push the odd Ace and get the blinds back. I finally push again on the button with K8c and get called by AK in the BB and suck out with an 8 on the flop. I donk off some more, and push again with 690 and flop a 9 to stick around a little longer. Then I take most of Kent's chips when my pocket 4's hold up against his K4s.

Other than those two timely suckouts, I played one of more memorable solid games in a while. Always aware of the bubble and chip stacks etc. It felt great to get back into it.

Kent gets knocked out by Cathy shortly after that. 2 hands later Cathy suggests a chop and I agree as it was already midnight. We both take $370 for our hard work. I suggest a high card draw for the last $10 (no one had two fives LOL) and I manage to pluck the Ace of clubs for the win.

Thanks to Sean and 240 for sticking around and dealing. I really had a great time at the FCPC and look forward to the next event.