Friday Focii

I haven't had the time to just kick back and really write here for the past week or so, but tonight I am starting early and should have the freedom to mention a number of things I've had on my mind recently. Hopefully some of these random thoughts are of some interest to somebody out there.

For starters, I had a so-so at best run in Riverchasers on Thursday. Yes I made it I think to 28th or so out of 103 players, but I really didn't make one great play the entire night. I had more or less three big hands over two hours or so, and I didn't even play particularly well in any of them. My first big one was when I called Don's allin on the QJT flop with my AQo. Don of course was trying to JackAce me, but it was his silly move on a super strong flop and not any of my innate greatness that won me my first double up on the night. Similarly, my second double, that got me into the top 5 in chips with around 40 players remaining, occurred when I called a middle position preflop raise with my AK, flopped an Ace, and then called my opponent's insta-allin on the Ace-high flop. He proved to have just AT, and like my first big hand, I can't take any credit whatsoever for what was a bad, riverchasers-style play that my random cards did 100% of the work for while I just laid there. And then my third (and sadly, final) big hand occurred against Otis, making a rare appearance in the BBTwo, when I donkeybluffed with some shit like 76o I think and finally Otis mercifully folded to my reverse hoy bet at the river on my last bullet. Otis commented in the chat "I am the worst poker player ever" or something like that, which I took to mean that he probably called me with maybe middle pair middle kicker on the turn, only to fold to one more bet at the river when a complete rag fell. That's not typical Otis poker, but from his reaction I'm pretty sure that's what happened -- if he had called with a draw instead and then missed at the river, he would have folded as well, but he would not have been nearly as disgusted with himself as he was. Well, I was completely bluffing, but if you think about it I played that hand pretty dam horridly. I completely bluffed big on the turn, got called, and then moved essentially in the rest of my stack with Absolutely No Part of the board in any way.

So I did not play great despite running through a lot of players and eliminating a few dinkheads along the way. Still trying to find my rhythm just like for the entire first month of the first BBT. It's a sucky feeling, knowing that somewhere hidden deep away is my very potent blonkament game, and yet I just have no access to it right now. I've always been streaky like that. I'll go two months with nothing great and then three months with tons of scores and wins. And it kills me when I'm losing because I know I can play better. And I don't mean that the way that some noob who's just sitting down to his first online tournament means it when he tells it to himself after an early-round elimination. I know I can play better because I quite often have in the past. Riverchasers is a particularly hard tournament to win, because your 77 will get called allin on the raggy flop by ATo, and your AK will get called allin preflop by 22 in a big spot, that's just part of the bargain and to me it's what makes Riverchasers what it is. But it's winnable and I've been on the brink several times this year, so I know I can do much better in this thing. But the great thing about the BBTwo as I've said before is that there is always another tournament coming next week, another chance to win your way in to the Tournament of Champions to win the 18k Aussie Millions prize package.

Speaking of which, I wanted to make sure to update the 2007 MATH moneyboard for this week's tournament, which I have neglected to do so far this week. So here it is, including updates for the 9 cashers in this past Monday's Hoy tournament on full tilt:

1. Bayne_s $1400
2. Columbo $1362
3. Hoyazo $1162
4. RaisingCayne $1110
5. Astin $793
6. Pirate Wes $792
7. VinNay $775
8. cmitch $774
9. Iggy $745
10. NewinNov $677
11. Fuel55 $666
12. Lucko21 $665
13. Waffles $650
14. IslandBum1 $642
15. XxMagiciaNxX $630
15. JJ $630
17. Tripjax $561
18. Buddydank $553
19. swimmom95 $545
20. Gary Cox $518
21. Byron $510
22. Julius Goat $507
23. bartonf $492
23. mtnrider81 $492
25. PokerBrian322 $490
26. Chad $485
27. wormmsu $475
28. scots_chris $474
29. Emptyman $461
30. Mike_Maloney $456
31. RecessRampage $434
32. Otis $429
33. Surflexus $402
33. Miami Don $402
35. Zeem $389
36. Joe Speaker $384
37. jeciimd $382
37. Jordan $382
39. Blinders $379
40. leftylu $374
41. lightning36 $371
42. ChapelncHill $353
43. LJ $326
44. OMGitsPokerFool $324
45. oossuuu754 $312
46. Wigginx $288
47. ScottMc $282
48. Fishy McDonk $277
49. twoblackaces $276
49. actyper $276
51. Irongirl $252
51. Manik79 $252
53. Wippy1313 $248
54. Easycure $244
55. Riggstad $216
55. Garthmeister $216
55. wwonka69 $216
58. Omega_man_99 $210
59. katiemother $209
60. Pushmonkey72 $208
61. Thepokergrind $198
62. StatikKling $180
63. 23Skidoo $176
64. Santa Clauss $170
65. jimdniacc $166
66. Iakaris $162
66. Smokkee $162
68. Daddy $157
69. cemfredmd $156
69. NumbBono $156
71. lester000 $147
72. Heffmike $145
73. Kajagugu $143
73. brdweb $143
75. Mookie $137
75. DDionysus $137
77. Patchmaster $135
78. InstantTragedy $129
79. NinaW $120
80. UnTiltable $118
81. Ganton516 $114
82. Fluxer $110
83. hoops15mt $95
84. Gracie $94
84. Scurvydog $94
86. Shag0103 $84
87. crazdgamer $82
88. PhinCity $80
89. Presidentdave $79
90. maf212 $78
91. Alceste $71
91. dbirider $71
93. Rake Feeder $53

And I almost forgot, but for the month of November with the BBTwo in this hizzy, I'm going to spice things up a little bit with the Mondays at the Hoy tournaments, and we'll see how that goes and decide in a few weeks if December should revert back to the normal double stack nlh tournaments we've had every week or if we can mix it up a little more to end the BBTwo. For now, nothing too crazy, but I do want to do something for you poor, poor east coaster types who simply can't bring themselves to stay up late enough to outlast the new larger fields and double sized chip stacks that the BBTwo equates to for a 10pm ET start time. Seriously, I've received that comment from multiple people whose opinions I support, but I staunchly refuse to move the start time earlier because I believe at least as strongly that the West Coast donkeys should have time to work a normal work day, come home at their normal pace and be able to play. 7pm PT is already probably pushing that as it is, but it's I think the best balance between ET and PT that we can make on a random night during the work week.

So anyways, I've had a few people mention how late the 10pm BBTwo tournaments have been running, so here's what we're gonna do for November and Mondays at the Hoy. I'm still waiting for official confirmation from full tilt, but we're going to try some 6-max nlh for one of the month's tournaments, and we'll run one turbo nlh tournament as well during the month's MATH events, both with an eye towards hopefully getting the event to end a bit earlier, while also retaining the Hoy's traditional focus on nlh tournament poker. I may also throw in a combination of a few nlh gimmicks like that into one of the tourneys this month, plus maybe something a little different for the fourth event just after the Thanksgiving holiday. I will have the details of this in Monday's post, but for now suffice it to say that I'm looking to keep things fresh and fun, keep it nlh, but to add some bells and whistles that hopefully will be more fun for the players and also might help to bring about a quicker end to the tournament than these 1:30am+ late night fests that we've been seeing lately with the numbers of participants rising up near (and over) triple digits.

Before I leave, a couple of football-related notes. First and foremost, this is fucking ridickulous. The longer this business with Andy Reid and his recockulous family situation rolls on in Philly, all while the Eagles continue to embarrass ourselves on a weekly basis despite winning five straight NFC East titles heading into this season, the stoopider and stoopider it becomes that Reid is still sitting on the Eagles' sidelines at all. How the fike does someone keep working those 19- and 20-hour days that everyone know NFL coaches are famous for, never home, while his two sons are completely overmedicated, addicted to hardcore drugs, and in and out of jail and police officers all over the Philadelphia area again and again and again? And don't even get me started on the 89 pills hidden in the rectum thing...too many jokes, too little time.

Secondly, there are some truly absurd NFL lines this week IMO, so silly that I'm pretty sure they are just overly silly lines that are designed to trick the public into taking the obvious side of the bets. So I would play the opposite on each one of them, including the following games:

1. Detroit -3 at home against the upstart Denver Broncos. I think most people will be inclined to take the Broncos plus three points at the traditionally laughable Lions team, so much so that the oddsmakers in Vegas would have to know this when they go to set the line at Lions by 3 in this one. Thus, I say that the oddsmakers must believe deep down that the Lions will cover this spread, winning by more than 3 points. Take the Lions minus the 3 points and expect at least a touchdown victory margin for Detroit this weekend.

2. Kansas City -2 at home against the Packers. Now, I know how hard it can be to play at Arrowhead for visiting teams, those stories are well-known at this point and I'm not missing that point at all. But that said, the Pack is 6-1 here, and the Chiefs are arguably the worst +.500 team in the history of the NFL. This game should be a pickem at best, even taking into account the formidable home field advantage for the Chiefs, and the fact that the Chiefs are actually giving points to Brett Favre and the 6-1 Packers will stand out like a sore thumb. Thus, the Chiefs will likely cover. Take the Chiefs, give the two points, and win.

3. Cleveland -1 at home against Seattle. The people think Seattle is good. The people think the Browns are bad. So why are the Browns favored by a point over the Seahawks? One reason: to make you bet on the Seahawks, even getting one point to boot. Proper response: Take the Browns, give the point, and win.

OK let me go post this now. I really can't wait until next week when I plan to get back into posting some hands and talking some actual poker strategy for the first time in a few days, along with some new Pick 5 picks for next week's BBTwo tournaments. Oh, and congratulations to huntsvegas for taking down this week's Riverchasers tournament and the 7th seat to the BBTwo Aussie Millions Tournament of Champions. As usual I hope to be in the Friday night donkament $1 rebuy extravaganza at 9pm ET on full tilt (password is "donkarama), and otherwise you can probably find me this weekend in various FTOPS satellites and maybe at some nlh or plo cash tables on full tilt.