Poker Blog

November 2006

November 28
On Sunday, I played in three $215 tournaments again and placed in one of them. Surprisingly, it was the No Limit tournament that I placed in and not the HORSE or Omaha events.

There were 1256 entries in the event (it was the second chance tournament on PokerStars) and I finished in 90th. Throughout the tournament, I didn't have a huge amount of chips, but I had enough to keep me in the top 200. Once we got down to the money, I just stayed at the bottom of the pack. Overall, I was pleased with how I played especially because I have been playing so poorly for months. And I did manage to have pocket queens hold up on three different occasions which is a huge feat for me. Unfortunately, I only doubled up on one of them and it was toward the beginning of the tournament. I was never dealt any aces or kings.

November 23
I went to the gym the other day and after a good workout, I went to get myself a salad. My gym is located in a plaza and the restaurants are just across the parking lot. While I was walking back to my car, the sun was shining and I was feeling better than I have in ten months. It's moments like those that I'm thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 20
I played in three of the big Sunday tournaments yesterday and placed in two of them.

I started the day by playing in the Sunday Million on PokerStars. It has been awhile since I played in a big No Limit multi-table tournament and it showed. I played like a rookie and was eliminated after one hour of play.

Later, I joined the HORSE event and made a little bit of progress in every game that I played (until the last Holdem round). I have said that if you can play a decent game of Razz, then you are way ahead of the game. I have proof of that. The level was 1000-2000 with 200 antes. I was dealt 567 and completed the bet. One player called and was showing a three. The next card, I hit a ten and he hit a six. He checked to me and I decided to bet my ten. I figured he must have paired his six. He called my bet. I caught a four and he caught a king on the next card (I now had a made ten and was showing the best hand). I bet, he raised (what the hell was going on here?), I reraised and he capped. I called and was all-in. His hand at that time was 3K36K. When he turned his hand over, I quickly did a double take to make sure that we were still playing Razz! I briefly thought that maybe we had switched to Stud and didn't realize it, but no, we were playing Razz and I won a big pot. I finished the tournament in 17th place during the Holdem portion of the tournament. I really have to work on my Limit Holdem game because I play that game like a pansy.

The next tournament was the $215 Omaha tourney and I played extremely well. I even managed to hit a few flops. That kind of combination could certainly take me to the final table, but it didn't this time. I finished in 11th place and won $360.

I'm really competitive and it's usually not enough to finish in the money. I was a little disappointed about the way I played the last portion of the Horse tournament (the Holdem), but I have no complaints about the Omaha tourney. Overall, it was a really good day.

November 19
I played in the FullTilt Poker Online Poker Series this week and things didn't go so hot. On Wednesday night, they had their $200 HORSE event and I was seated to the immediate right of some rookie named Rizen. :) I have never played with him, but respect his game immensely from watching him play on PokerStars, the WSOP, and from reading his blog. No pressure! There are 6 other players at the table that would be willing to give me their chips. I did not play in the event to try and impress Rizen, but I didn't want to play like a donkey either. That is exactly what I did on two hands.

The first donkey hand was during the Razz portion of the tourney. I was dealt K77 with the seven showing. The players behind me were all showing cards ten or higher. I raised and as soon as I did, I realized the guy in front of me had already completed the bet with his 3 up. Everyone folded back to him and he called. I caught a five and he caught a nine. I know in my head to cut my losses from my mistake and just give up, but that's not what I did. I bet out and he called. As soon as that happened, it finally clicked. "Give up this hand already" The hand ended up getting checked down and I miraculously won the hand. That means the hand went to showdown and the whole table knew how I donked the hand. One player even commented on it.

Other than that hand, there wasn't much excitement going on in my game. I had managed to hold onto the chips I started with, but hadn't won any significant hands. Finally we were at the Omaha portion of the tournament again and I figured I could win some chips there. My tournament basically came down to one hand of poker. And the hand was ugly. I was dealt A299 with the A2 of hearts. I played the hand (I raised) with two other players and was hoping to catch a miracle nine on the flop. The flop was JT8 with two hearts. The first player bet, I raised with my flush draw hoping to get some information and the last player folded. The turn paired the jack and we both checked. The river was a nine. The first player led out, I raised, he reraised and I called. He showed quad jacks. I don't know what happened to my brain during that instant that I raised. I actually thought about just calling and then changed my mind. If I had thought about the whole hand for 5 seconds, I would have realized that the most logical hand for him to have on the flop would have been jacks up which meant he had me beat! I managed to make it through the rest of the Omaha and then I was eliminated on the next round (Razz).

Razz is becoming one of my other favorite games because most players can't play a lick. I was looking forward to Friday night's event and was really confident that I was going to do well in it.

During the day, my housekeeper came over and we both cleaned my house from top to bottom because the plumbers had been there all week doing a total re-pipe on my house and there was dust EVERYWHERE. She finally left at two and I tried to sign on to my computer, but couldn't get a connection. I had been having problems all week long, so I did the usual stuff to try and get it to work (restart, unplug the modem, etc), but gave up on it for awhile. At 5:00, I tried to sign on again (the tournament started at 6:00) and I still couldn't. I messed with the computer for about fifteen minutes and then finally called Verizon. I spent the first portion talking to the automated voice. It was the same woman I talked to last year when I had all those connection problems. She is still annoying! Finally, I got through to a tech guy and he tested the line from there and said that I needed a new modem. He was going to connect me to somebody that could help. I talked with the next guy and he informed me that I needed to talk to the people in "parts". I guess the first guy connected me to the wrong place. The new guy told me to hang up and call the original number back, but press the button prompt for parts instead of support. I hung up and was bent out of shape. I didn't want to deal with this. I just wanted to play the Razz tournament.

Instead of dealing with the people on the phone, I was planning on going to Best Buy and buying a new modem. I didn't think I would be able to make it back in time and I wouldn't know where to begin in trying to connect a new modem. So I gave up on the Best Buy idea and called Verizon back. My dear friend, the automated lady told me that it should be less than five minutes wait. About three minutes later, she told me again, "the expected wait time will be less than five minutes". A few minutes later, she told me again. I was really losing my mind because I started to talk back to her. "You told me that five minutes ago!!", I screamed. Fourteen minutes later, a real live woman finally gets on the phone and I tell her that the wait time was longer than five minutes. I tell her my problem and she informs me that if I need a new modem, then I need to call back on Monday. She asks me about my phone lines and asks me if I have a phone connected to the same outlet as the computer. I tell her no and she says that maybe the problem is not with my modem, but is with my jack. She suggests that I take the modem and connect it to another jack and see if it works. That was the most genius idea I had heard in an hour. I reach back to disconnect my modem from the wall jack and see that it was disconnected already!

My housekeeper accidentally disconnected the line when she was cleaning!

November 15
I am happy to announce that the big poker news of the day is that Kathy Liebert and Mimi Tran made the final table of the WPT Foxwoods main event. History has already been made by both of them making the final table, but if one pulls off the victory, it will be huge!

The other big news of the day is that I can officially say that things look great regarding my health. I finished all of my treatments a couple of weeks ago and then had a follow up doctors appointment last week. He said that from where he stood, things looked great and he didn't expect to see me in his office anymore (except for a check-up here and there). They scheduled me for my "after treatment" mammogram and I went to that today. After we were finished, the nurse left the room and when she returned, she said "The doctor looked over the film and everything looked good." I have had a positive attitude for the most part throughout this whole ordeal, but I can't even tell you the relief I felt when I walked out of that office. I imagine that I am going to feel like that after every check-up for the next five years (that's how long they will be monitoring me)

Thanks to everyone that sent me Birthday messages. I had a good birthday and felt even more special when I saw all the emails.

November 14
My weekend in San Diego was definitely needed as was my break from poker. I spent all three days with my family and laughed more than I have in awhile. My sister is hilarious and she had the rest of us in stitches for a large portion of the trip. Even though I enjoyed my time away, I was glad to be home.

I was not able to play in the weekly Omaha tournament on PokerStars, but I plan on making it up by playing in two of FullTilt Poker's FTOPS tournaments this week. Their Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) is equivalent to Stars' World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP). On Wednesday, I am playing in the HORSE event and on Friday, I am playing in the Razz event. Both tourneys have a nice guarantee and I am looking forward to playing.

November 9
I have spent most of my "playing time" this week at FullTilt Poker playing the Razz and the Omaha Hi/Low games. Both games are incredible, but over the past week, I have only managed to break even in the Razz.

Of course, I broke away from FullTilt, so I could play in the weekly Omaha Hi/Low tourney on PokerStars on Sunday night. This week I did better, but I still didn't come into the money. I did notice that my brain is working better and my mind can form intelligent thoughts. It is pretty sad that medication that is supposed to make you better makes you so weak physically, intellectually, and emotionally. It's been two months since my last chemo treatment and I finally feel like myself.

Now that things are almost normal, I am hoping that I can start doing well in tournaments. I am going to skip the Omaha tourney this week because it is my B-day on Sunday. I normally like to play poker on my birthday because it's in the rules that you win on your birthday, but I don't think I am going to have time to play. Tomorrow I am heading to San Diego with my Mom, Sister and cousin to celebrate. I am planning on coming back on Sunday, but I'm not sure if I will be home in time or if I am going to have enough energy to play. It's just going to have to be a "wait and see" kind of thing.

November 1
I played a little Razz today on FullTilt, but didn't do so well. I was having a hard time making hands and decided to cut my session a little short. I jumped on a small no limit game instead and did alright. I have never been a huge fun of playing no limit ring games online. I seem to do alright (I won a little today), but it just bores me to tears most of the time. Online NL tournaments are another story and I need to play a few more to get myself ready for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

I got a letter from Harrah's regarding the 2007 World Series of Poker and they set the dates. The first event is June 1st and the final table of the main is scheduled for July 17. I have heard at least one person say that they still expect the main event to have 8k players this year. I am curious to see how many players they actually get. I am betting they have a lot less than they had last year in the main event, but I think the HORSE event will have more than they had in 2006. Players seem to enjoy the mixed game structure and I am one of those people. I am really happy to see so many players expand their horizons beyond No Limit Holdem. I would like to see even more players sit down at the Omaha tables.