We have a winner!

Sit N Go’s it is. I like the action and the ability to hone in on players. I tried playing two at the same time again today, but I just won’t learn. I played a 9 man SNG and and 18 man SNG. The 9 Man I have A-10 and the flop is 10 3 2 rainbow. Next card another 3. He pushes all in. I am the chip leader but this is #2. I call knowing he has a 2 but more likely a 3. He shows 4h3h. I lose everything but 165 and then lose that on my next push all in. I am a donkey.

The 18 man was better, as in I won. The key play was me smoothcalling 2 raisers with 8 -6 while I was the chip leader at our table. Flop comes K 9 7 rainbow. Shortstack pushes, I call, someone else pushes I call. Huge pot, and next cards is 5 and then a 4 to rub it in. From there I never looked back. I had QQ twice or once, but everyone folded to them pre-flop anyway. One thing that I have really been working on is my post flop play, and I am really happy with how that has been progressing. I’m making the right calls an extremely high proportion of the time and I care little about the actual result.

So far so good.

With that victory my bankroll is now sitting at $22. If I can push it up to $100, then I will jump up to the $2 SNG’s. If that works then the $3 and so on (if they exist). There was a set of uncirculated PNY’s on ebay today which got scooped pretty quick. If I ever win the lottery, I’m grabbing them. At $2 a chip, everyone will have to wear latex gloves while playing though…

I finally did it! Well by default…

But it was really bad! I’ve started playing online poker at Pokerstars. Apparantly the way to go is to play small stakes there and then when you have $600 deposit over to Full Tilt Poker. I deposited $75 about a month ago. I started at .02/.05 and won $30. I then moved up to .05/.1. I then proceeded to lose $75. I knew that micro players played differently, but I just had to call to see when I was beat. It was horrible. I called even knowing I was beat!

So with a bankroll of $30 I pushed it up to almost $40 then donked a bunch away. I started playing the $1 Sit and Go’s. Basically they are mini tournaments. I tried multi tabling those as well, but I just get too distracted. I played 3 SNG’s tonight. 1 turbo (uber lame) 1 regular 45 (knocked out at 26) and 1 9 man which I won.

The final player didn’t know you could raise more than the min, so it wasn’t a real victory. Of the 8 SNG’s I’ve played so far, I’ve made the money 4 times. in 3 heads up situations I’ve only won once.

1st I had @ 2K in chips more than the villain. He wins a couple of coinflips where I had the edge and I lose

2nd I had @ 9K more, and I experienced the all-in play. I tried to just hold on, but by that time he picked up @3K more. We then had a couple of all ins, where once again I was a favorite but lost. But this was the tournament where I was all-in first hand against some one. My QQ vs his JJ.

3rd. I danced around, getting pretty low at one point. I have a new trick. My wife will be watching TV or putzing around and I will say “Honey, Please ask them to fold”. At which point, she will say in her sweetest voice “Would everyone please fold”. And then I drag the pot…

So I built up my chips and made it to the final 4. I go all in and it’s my AJ vs the 3rd place guys QQ. I lucksack the A on the flop and that’s basically it. I just run over Johnny Min Bet.

I’ve been looking to augment my current set with a seperate cash set. I’ve been looking to get St. Jo’s or Tukwila’s and I also like the Samurai Palace cash set.

Here are the potential breakdowns:

St Jo (.25/.50?, .50/1, and 1/2)

45 – ncv labeled (potentially used as .25)
130 – .50
221 – $1
100 – $5
10 – $25
10 – $100

Tukwila’s (1/2 unless I get a .50 or .25 chip)

154 – $1
104 – $5
30 – $25
10 – $100

Samurai Palace (.25/50 or .50/1)

200 - .25

250 - $1

80  – $5.00

20 - $25

With money tight and the uncertainty at work this will be my last purchase in a while. They walked some people out on my Birthday, so it was a pretty shitty day as everyone was pretty tense. Good thing I don’t have any major expenses coming up soon such as a kid…

On a related note I’m reading the Moshman Sit N Go book as well as the mathematics of poker. I made the final table of a 45 man yesterday and then donked out in 6th on an uber retarded play on my part. A8 vs AQ on a board of Q 8 X . I just got it in my mind that he was bluffing. bad thing was that he wasn’t, and he was the chip leader…

Annual Ruminations?

Not really. Between work and life, things have been pretty crazy. We have a little one coming in December so we’ve been busy preparing for that. I just got the following story below from the wires and thought it was pretty funny. As the Republicans desperately try to swing the vote in their favour, for the first time I have actually begun to fear for Obama’s life. Apparantly the anger is palpable, and thinly veiled race-baiting and appeals to xenophobia (always popular in small towns, and I’m speaking from experience here) came to the forefront on the republican campaign trail last week.

The foreign policy credentials of Obama were attacked and then in the ultimate act of hubris, the person with the least amount of foreign policy experience was chosen as the candidate for Vice-President. I was pleasantly surprised to see Colin Powell come out in support of Obama, a move which I think may have swung the campaign if Obama can overcome the “Wilder Effect” (whites saying they will vote for a black candidate, but the actual result shows that @10% do not).

Here is an interesting story about the reading habits of the hockey mom.  And more importantly a hilarious website:

http://www.palinaspresident.us/

Here is the story below:

NEW YORK – Does U.S. vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin consider herself intellectual? You betcha! Although she didn’t name a single newspaper or magazine when CBS News anchor Katie Couric asked where she got her information, Palin told People magazine she has always been a “voracious reader.” She mentioned reading – anything from biographies to historical works – as one of her favourite things, along with her children and sports.

Besides author Lawrence Wright’s terrorism history, “The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11,” Palin says she’s been reading a lot of briefing papers. She says: “And you have to be up on not only current events, but you have to understand the foundation of the issues that you’re working on.” She says she appreciates a lot of information, as she grew up in a family of school teachers.

Also, Palin says if she and husband Todd had had a sixth child, they have already picked a name for a boy joining siblings Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig. “I always wanted a son named Zamboni,” she said.