Creeping up

I finished 4th in tonight's Mookie and it's only a matter of time before I take down this prestigious title. As usual, a good time was had by all.

What's in a Name?

I like this player's screen name. More good ones here.

Another cash in the Riverchasers

After bombing out in this week's Mookie, I managed to finish 5th in last night's Riverchasers Event #2, hosted by the Reverend Al. I started off inauspiciously and was down to T690 (and last position) very early on. I fought back, building my stack up to a respectable level. The pivotal hand for me was the following:

Full Tilt Poker Game #1673618973: Riverchasers Tour Event #2 (11176593), Table 8 - 60/120 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:13:28 ET - 2007/01/25 (partial)
Seat 1: dnasty13 (1,515)
Seat 2: patryn21 (4,150)
Seat 3: ScottMc (1,490)
Seat 4: -o-LuckTruck-o- (3,215)
Seat 5: noollab (580)
Seat 6: pebble78 (3,216)
Seat 7: MrSubliminal (3,330)
Seat 8: MoonShadow58 (950)
Seat 9: cycleseller (2,571)
pebble78 posts the small blind of 60
MrSubliminal posts the big blind of 120
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MrSubliminal [As Kh]
MoonShadow58 folds
cycleseller folds
dnasty13 folds
patryn21 raises to 350
ScottMc folds
-o-LuckTruck-o- folds
noollab folds
pebble78 folds
MrSubliminal calls 230
*** FLOP *** [Ad 7c 7h]
MrSubliminal checks
patryn21 bets 300
MrSubliminal raises to 1,200
patryn21 has 15 seconds left to act
patryn21 raises to 3,800, and is all in
MrSubliminal calls 1,780, and is all in
patryn21 shows [7s 9s]
MrSubliminal shows [As Kh]
Uncalled bet of 820 returned to patryn21
*** TURN *** [Ad 7c 7h] [Qh]
*** RIVER *** [Ad 7c 7h Qh] [Ac]
patryn21 shows a full house, Sevens full of Aces
MrSubliminal shows a full house, Aces full of Sevens
MrSubliminal wins the pot (6,720) with a full house, Aces full of Sevens




After the flop, I was a 91% dog and was very lucky not to have been eliminated there and then. Of course I could not put him on a 7 and would play the hand the same way tomorrow. That's poker.

Wish me luck

I start work on Monday as a human directional.

Poker Source Online

If you play a decent amount of poker (and since you are reading a poker blog, you probably do), you know that you pay the poker room to play in the form of rake. There is nothing wrong with that; the poker rooms have to make money to stay in operation. But if you could play at a discount, you certainly would, wouldn’t you?

That is where Poker Source Online comes in. Poker Source Online, also known in the online poker community as “PSO,” has partnered with four of the top online poker rooms to offer rakeback to new customers. Anyone who has never had an account at Sun Poker, Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet, or Absolute Poker can have anywhere from 27% to 32% of their rake returned to them, depending on the poker room.

Sure, some rakeback providers work with more rooms than PSO does, but PSO limits the rooms it deals with in order to ensure the highest quality customer service, both from the room and from PSO. If you ever have a question about your rakeback, PSO will be there to help you. Some of the poker room representatives even stop by PSO’s message forum to assist from time to time.

Three of the rooms deposit the rakeback directly into your poker account as cash. There is no need to request a payout from PSO to get your money. One room, Ultimate Bet, pays out in PSO “Points,” which can be accumulated and spent in PSO’s online store. There, you can purchase all sorts of poker goodies, books, DVD’s, electronics, and gift cards (some gift cards are even for poker rooms, so they are as good as cash).

So, if you want to essentially get paid to play poker, it only makes sense to sign up for rakeback at Poker Source Online. You are going to play poker anyway, so reward yourself for it! Visit http://www.pokersourceonline.com for more details.

Not about Neteller

I made the money in last night's Mookie, finishing 7th.



Bubble play was tight and lucko21 used this to his advantage by relentlessly attacking the blinds. His 94 offsuit was too much for Dachrsty's AK, the latter going out in 8th place. I was involved in that hand (JJ) but made a hasty exit when my post-flop feeler bet was raised by lucko. Had it not been bubble time, I would have pushed and also been eliminated. On second thoughts, I would have pushed pre-flop, almost certainly getting lucko out of the hand. When it comes to lucko, I use the "almost" qualifier.



Congrats to wwonka69 for winning the event.

MTT's are fun

It is an immutable fact of tournament life that eventually either you will suck out on someone or they will suck out on you. In sharp contrast to what you will read elsewhere, I present an example of the former. This was an all-in hand and I went on to finish in the money.



Following is another all-in hand and an example of nearly being sucked out on. Preflop I am an 82.3% favorite. The flop gives my opponent 93 outs and from here it is virtually a coin toss (51.5% in my favor). Not surprisingly, my sphincter contracted as the turn and river cards fell (see last visual).

Great Success!!

After thoroughly enjoying myself in The Mookie, I decided to try Al's Riverchasers event. I finished 6th out of 119. May be time to give MTT's another shot?

Blogger vs. Blogger

From the very outset, I have made it a policy of not playing poker online with my fellow bloggers. I make exceptions for special tournaments and have been known to sit in on the odd cash game when I recognize some names. I know I forego much camaraderie and good fun but if I cannot play my natural game then I feel it best not to play at all. When I sit down at a table, I want to win every player's buy-in. I expect everyone to rebuy after they have lost their stack to me, and then my goal is to win that new stack. Rinse and repeat till the player is broke. And that is why I never play poker with friends.

Sometimes the blogger camaraderie is challenged by the inevitable clashes of ego that poker is known to elicit. A recent example is SirFWalgman calling Weak Player a "fucking tool" over a particular hand in a $1-$2 NLHE cash game. Of course, Waffles apologized in the very next post. There have been other uncharacteristic "flareups" in the past, with Mattazuma vs. Hoyazo just one example coming to mind.

Perhaps the only cash game that I've played with any bloggers during the last 24 months occurred a few weeks ago when I spotted Joe Speaker and April in a NLHE game on FTP. I know I folded some reasonably good hands pre-flop when either Joe or April raised; hands that I certainly would have played against anyone else. We talked a bit, laughed some and then bade each other good night.