Crazy PokerStars Request

Inspired by irc and Mourn and the $0.10 tournaments on Pokerstars...

Wouldn't it be cool to have a $0.10 with rebuys? I'd drop at least $3 for the entertainment value alone! Plus, can you imagine the prizepool?

Help us out by emailing pokerstars here: support@pokerstars.com

SNOWMAN HAMMERLEGS GOOOT

+236.75 BB tonight.



... at $.02/$0.04 Limit Holdem. Man, as I told G-Rob a long time back, splashing around in the microlimit waters and letting loose your inner donkey makes the game fun again and somehow this kept me up until 3 in the freaking morning laughing so hard at how we kept cracking the Geek's AA, QQ, flopped straight with such things as snowman-hammerlegs (82, for those of you who can't figure it out), or the hammer, or any number of any-twos. And I don't think there was more than 5% of the hands that were not capped preflop.

Oddly, this has given me a pretty good insight on the $20/$40 game that's played at harrah's where they all act like crazy maniacs. You can act like one, but you can still win money if you a) are SLIGHTLY selective preflop, b) don't let the dollar amounts matter and c) realize if you have absolutely no outs and then fold.

And now, it's off to bed for me.

Please help - Seeking potential bone marrow donors (Filipino, 18-61)

I'm a little late on this train, and I realize that some of you who read this have no idea who StudioGlyphic is (he's one of the poker blogger folks), much less his friend Jake or Jake's girlfriend, but please read on. Even if you're not Filipino, you may know someone who is, and be able to help, so please please pass the word on, as the odds of finding a donor match are about 1:20,000, but Christine's odds are even longer because she is Fillipino.

[stealing the paraphrasing from Wil because I'm lazy]

Medically, the only option Christine has left is a Bone Marrow Transplant. The survival rate of this procedure is 30-40%. Of those who do survive the procedure itself, only 50% survive the next two years. However, if she does survive those two years, it means the cancer won't come back.

This is a pretty terrible option. However, the non medical option is also horrible. Her doctor says that if she chooses not to have the Bone Marrow Transplant, she'll be dead within a year.

This is hard enough for the average person. There are over 20,000 types of bone marrow, so the average person has a 1 in 20,000 chance of finding a match. These numbers are even worse for Christine. Because she is Filipino, she needs to find a donor of the same ethnic background, and there are hardly any Filipinos on the National Registry.

Because we caught the cancer early, right now is our best chance of having the Bone Marrow Transplant work. Every day we lose her chances of surviving drop.

So please, contact your friends, and ask them to contact their friends. Anyone you know who is Filipino and between the ages of 18 and 61 is a potential donor. The system is nationwide, so it doesn't matter where they live. Signing up on the registry is easy and painless. All it requires is a simple blood test. Some hospitals charge a small fee for this blood test, however if your friends contact me directly, I can put them in touch with one of the hundreds of local organizations that will do the blood test for free. They can use this email address:

jacobkrueger@gmail.com

You can reassure your friends that signing up for the registry does not require donating any bone marrow. If it turns out they are a match, they will be contacted, and can make the decision at that point about becoming a donor.

There are lots of misconceptions about donating bone marrow. (I know I was terrified of doing it before I learned how minor the procedure actually is.) The procedure is simple and safe. You will be anesthetized the whole time, so you will not feel anything. When the procedure is over, you may have some soreness in the area for a few days and you may feel a little tired. That's it. The bone marrow you donate is replenished within 3-4 weeks. And again, you will only undergo this procedure if your blood sample shows that you are a match and you decide to donate, in which case the slight soreness you'll be feeling will be saving someone's life.

All medical expenses for the donor will be covered by Christine's insurance. And as I mentioned before, if they contact me directly, I can put them in touch with an organization near them that will put them on the National Registry for free and also make sure they are listed as a Sponsor for Christine.

Euro WWdN

Well, since Wil mentioned me by name, I suppose I'll pimp his Euro WWdN here. And, since I happen to work from home on Fridays (and most other days), I'll break my rule and pony up the $11 to play with him. (Plus, at the moment there are only 5 people signed up, so I'm liking those odds, baby).

From Wil: If you're interested in playing, head over to PokerStars, and from the lobby go to tourneys -> private, and look for tourney number 19345283. The buy-in is $10 +1, and the game starts at 1:30 PM EST (5:30 PM GMT) which should make it "friendly" for the bulk of European players.

p.s. the password is "monkey", eep eep

Also, congrats to Alan, who took 2nd in the 16k last night - he's on a rush!

The good, the bad and the <fill in the blank here>

I'm in a love-hate relationship these days with bloggers. Here's the love part:

I was having a conversation with helixx the other day about how he didn't think he could build his bankroll just playing SnGs. I begged to differ, because I distinctly recall reading that Mourn and TheNerd both pretty much solely play SnGs as their bankroll padding.

So, being the girl-geek wanna be, I took advantage of the fact that they were both online on the geek-chat-device at the same time, and asked if they win their money in ring games or SnGs - they both answered SnGs. Ah hah! Little did they know they would have to now put up with my incessant questions over the next few days. Poor guys.

Mourn says that the turbos are really the way to go as while you might have a drop in ROI %, it's not enough of a drop to make up for the reduced amount of time per game (and thus the number of games you can turn around per night). However, you need to understand all-in strategy and be okay with shoving in a LOT (and by that I really do mean a LOT) - pretty much it's shove time when you hit 12BB, and that can happen pretty quickly at the turbos.

Here's Mourn's advice (since he's being slow about posting a turbo strategy post, hint hint):
"well, in a SnG, when you are under about 10-12 BB, you never do anything but shove"
"and people will rip you for it"
"so you have to not care about that"
"and when you get your chips in first, you have a lot of ways to win"

And for starting to run these:
and I would practice low, and then multi-table low
then move and play singles, and then multi at that level
like play $5s
one at a time, until you're comfy, then play four x $5
then move up to 1 $15 at a time
them multi $15s
and so on

He's got lots more good advice, but I'll let Mourn post some if he wants to, otherwise I will keep him and his advice all to myself.

Here's what The Nerd says on learning how to play turbos:

nerd, do you play turbos only?
right now, yes
so where's the best place to learn how to play turbos?
other than picking your brain :)
SNG analyzer
dare i say 2+2?
at least for no limit
yeah but where? and how much chaff to good?
single-table tournament board
good players usually keep the chaff in line

So there's the good, and the love. I'm still trying to debate if the SnG analyzer is worth the $80 he's asking for it because a) the demo SUCKS so badly but b) Mourn and Nerd say it's HAWESOME, especially for late-stage play.

The bad is that I've decided that (except for a handful of folks and you know who you are) for the foreseeable future, I'm done with playing with bloggers. Multi-table Tournaments are -EV for me in general (and I'm usually out for the Tuesday WWdN, and the Thursday WWdN is too late for me), so it's just like throwing money away. Playing ring games is negative emotional EV because the level of play is annoying awful and then I probably have to read about how wonderful they were later.

Two comments from the peanut gallery that sum this up:
its expected. i expect to lose because of shit like that. it makes me waaaaay madder to lose to people who i know don't know any better
You want tougher competition? No, but at least give me the illusion that there might be a clue rattling around there somewhere.

On the random front:
Have you seen how PokerStars interfaces with PokerTracker for tournaments? That is the HAWESOME! Hint Hint FullTilters, this would be something uber rockin' to add, as I'm not playing any SnGs on FTP (except for peep sex) due to this feature of PokerStars, and I can't be the only one...

My friends are whackjobs but I love them...

So I found out from April and Pauly that Erick Lindgren, The Grinder, and Dags are all at the final table for the Borgata WPT final table. The following ensues, which is probably only funny to me, but I'm not handcuffing you to the page to read this:

<maigrey>hmmmmm
<chrisdhal>hmm?
<maigrey>debating if I can get to the borgata by 5 pm est tonight
<chrisdhal>ahhh :)
<helixx>to airport - 1hr with traffic. assuming an immediate flight, eta in philly 4:00est, then get a car (20 minutes), drive to AC in rush hour traffic) from PHL (2 hours)
<helixx>6:30 at the earliest assuming moderate traffic and all timing re: flights are perfect
<maigrey>snif
<maigrey>but that gives me 6 hours with erick
<helixx>then you gotta get into the borgata, another 10-20
<maigrey>fine
<maigrey>5.5 hours with erick
<maigrey>that's worth it
<chrisdhal>lol
<chrisdhal>heather, you need some more work at being a stalker, you should have had this all planned out
[8 minutes pass]
* chrisdhal thinks she left already
<helixx>i know
<helixx>i plan my stalking carefully
<chrisdhal>and you're a tard, so just think what she could do if she tried
<maigrey>HA HA HA
<helixx>word up

[edit - You guyyyys! Pauly is the COOLEST! He just sent me about 5 photos of Erick to make up for the fact I couldn't get to the borgata in time. Go show him the love at his site: http://taopoker.blogspot.com]