Poker Game Journal

June 2006

June 28
I figured it was time for me to write some kind of journal entry to let everybody that I was still alive and hanging tough.

The last couple weeks have been hell. I posted in my last entry that my last treatment really kicked me to the curb. Unfortunately, it hasn't stopped.

I got a call last week from the doctor to tell me that they were going to postpone my next treatment because my blood counts were too low. Instead of doing my treatment yesterday, it looks like I might get it next Monday. That means that it might interfere with me playing in the Omaha event on Thursday. It broke my heart when I got that call, but I have put things in perspective since then. If I get to play, then great! If not, so be it! If I can't do it this year, then I will just have to get myself prepared for next year. While I am sitting on the sidelines (or not), David Huber will hopefully be tearing it up in the main event. David is a friend and a person who has contributed a great deal to this site (check out his guest articles). He won his seat this past Sunday on a VIP Goldstar Freeroll on PokerStars. There were 726 players and he managed to make it into the top three. I wish him the best of luck.

While on the subject of congratulating people... I have to give a big shout out to Mike Sexton for winning the Tournament of Champions at the WSOP. Many people don't know that Sexton was one of the creators of the original Tournament of Champions of Poker several years ago, so it is pretty cool that he actually won the WSOP TOC years later.

Back to the tables. The games have been okay to me. Haven't won very much, but haven't lost either. This is a good thing considering my mind is not as sharp as it usually is. In four months time, I will be back to my old self and hopefully tearing it up again.

June 18
I had a full day of poker on Sunday starting with the annual Blogger tournament on PokerStars. There were over 2,000 entrants and I started the tournament out by being in the top 100. I kept the pace for about one hour and then I donked off my chips with KJ of spades. The flop was jack high and my opponent had me outkicked with his AJ. I was left with a shortstack after that hand and was eliminated about five minutes later.

I jumped around after I was knocked out. I played a little Omaha, some sit n go's, and even a no limit cash game. I signed up for the Sunday Omaha tournament around 7:00 pm and then decided to check on the progress of the blogger's tourney. They were at the final table and I was amused by all the chat that was going on. Them damn bloggers are a witty bunch!!

I finally broke my dry spell in the Omaha tournament. I made the final table and finished in sixth place. I am pleased that I finally made some money, but of course I am disappointed in my finish. I was blowing the guys out of the water for awhile and went to the final table as the chip leader. I stopped making hands at the critical time of the tournament and couldn't do anything about it. Mark Gregorich ended up taking me out with 8762 (all spades). I didn't have enough chips to raise on my last hand and even Mark plays crap in that situation. :) He ended up winning the thing.

June 17
Tomorrow morning is the Bloggers tournament on PokerStars. I always enjoy playing in tournament with my fellow bloggers and this one should be especially fun because there are 2239 of us!

I figured that since I wasn't going to play the main event at the World Series of Poker this year, I would make it interesting by making a $100 bet with a girlfriend of mine. Each of us picked twenty players and once one of us loses all of their players, then the other gets the $100 PLUS $1 for each person they still have in the tournament. I picked players that I thought were at the top of their game, but also ones that I think have the longevity to outlast a huge field.

My picks are:

Phil Ivey
The Grinder
Mark Seif
Nick Shulman
Patrick Antonious
Tim Phan
Erik Sagstrom
John D' Agostino
Joe Sebok
Greg Raymer
Chris Ferguson
Scotty Nguyen
Carlos Mortensen
Daniel Alaei
Mike Matusow
Tuan Le
Joe Cassidy
Kathy Liebert
Dustin Woolf
Frederik Halling

Hers are:

John Juanda
Gavin Smith
David Williams
Kenna James
Allen Cunningham
Phil Hellmuth
Barry Greenstein
Daniel Negreanu
David Singer
Johnny Chan
Marcel Luske
Layne Flack
Todd Brunson
Sammy Farha
Robert Mizrachi
Michael Gratz
Ted Forrest
Jennifer Harman
John Phan
Doyle Brunson

Of course there were other players that I wanted in my pool (Erik Seidel, Hoyt Corkins, ...) but we only got 20 players each and with 8,000 players expecting to play in this year's main event, you gotta leave some contenders out.

June 11
I have not played much poker over the last week because of my treatments. The last round had me in bed for five days straight and I couldn't bring myself around to playing. I think I played a total of two hours for the week up until yesterday. I have been fortunate during this whole thing because I am usually only "out of commission" for one or two days. I have no clue what happened this time. I am happy to say that I am still hanging tough and am halfway finished with my treatment.

Yesterday, I played a few tournaments, but didn't get anything going. I started the day by playing in the $1,000,000 guaranteed $215 buy-in NL tournament and got knocked out when my aces got cracked. PokerStars started a new second chance tournament that begins at 3:15 Pacific time so I decided to take a stab. That tournament didn't go any better than the first one and I told myself that the live action Omaha games were a better use of my time. My NL game has been a little passive lately and I really need to work on stepping my game up before I play NL tournaments with buy-ins of $200 or more.

The World Series of Poker is just around the corner. I have decided to play in two of the three Omaha events. I am still disappointed that I am not able to play in all the events I had originally wanted to, but I am happy about playing in two. I will just have to wait a year to tear it up like I had planned.

June 2
I just finished the shortest heads-up match in my life. It lasted for all of ONE hand.

PokerStars Game #5136297741: Tournament #25823216, $100+$5 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2006/06/03 - 02:28:35
Table '25823216 1' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Siren (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: maxv2 (1500 in chips)
Siren: posts small blind 10
maxv2: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Siren [7d 6d]
Siren: calls 10
maxv2: checks
*** FLOP *** [3s 9d 2c]
maxv2: checks
Siren: checks
*** TURN *** [3s 9d 2c] [5d]
maxv2: bets 20
Siren: calls 20
*** RIVER *** [3s 9d 2c 5d] [8d]
maxv2: bets 100
Siren: raises 100 to 200
maxv2: raises 600 to 800
Siren: raises 660 to 1460 and is all-in
maxv2: calls 660 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Siren: shows [7d 6d] (a straight flush, Five to Nine)
maxv2: shows [2d Td] (a flush, Ten high)
Siren collected 3000 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3000 | rake 0
Board [3s 9d 2c 5d 8d]
Seat 1: Siren showed [7d 6d] and won (3000) with a straight flush, Five to Nine
Seat 2: maxv2 showed [2d Td] and lost with a flush, Ten high

June 1
I have received a few emails about my last journal entry and the guy who flopped quads. It seems that several people want to give him the benefit of the doubt. His computer could have been lagging, he might have been multi-tabling, or he might have been taking a screen shot. I don't know....I guess all those things are possible and maybe I should give him the benefit of the doubt. I am almost certain that the guy was just a clown, but it's nice to know that I have kind hearted people who read my journal.

I spent the whole day playing $10-20 Omaha and struggled for most of the day. The game I was in was a gold mine and I only struck coal. Here is one example. A player in middle position calls, I raise in the cutoff and get called by the button, the small blind, and the original limper. I had A936 (A6 of hearts) and raised the original limper because he was a total goofball. The flop was 942 with two hearts. Pretty good flop for my hand. I had top pair, nut heart draw, and nut low draw. It was checked to me, I bet and was called by the all of them. The turn was a six giving me top two, nut low, and nut flush draw. It was checked to me again, I bet and was called by only the original limper. The river was an offsuit five. He bet into me, I raised and he called. I knew he was a goof, but I actually expected him to turn over a wheel OR a six high straight and that I was going to get 3/4 of the pot. I got only half the pot. He turned over T987 rainbow. Believe me, I am not complaining! In this example, I at least got half the pot, but there were a lot of situations where I got nothing. When that happens for hours at a time, it gets a bit frustrating. Even though it wasn't a profitable day, I love these "Omaha players."