Looking for My Father in Las Vegas

Via F-Train:"Looking for My Father in Las Vegas"

“Problem gamblers are life’s losers,” he said. “They wanna go broke. They always find a reason why they lost. I lose, I go home. Reasons are part of the equation. Once I bet, I understand I have no control, so I understand loss.” He stood up to go. He added: “Everybody can’t be winners. That’s why we need born losers.”

And yet, so true. 

How to turn $8.80 into $216

How to turn $8.80 into $216,
originally uploaded by maigrey.

Ok, so I'm hanging out on a lazy sunday waiting for the Bears game, and I enter into the 8+.80 satellite for the 200+16 game later tonight.

I managed to win it, after getting a huge run of cards in... hold'em.


... I also took down the $5.50 HORSE on FTP last night -- in Hold'em as well. Watch out for flying pigs and pieces of the sky falling...

Funniest post I've seen in a long while...

... goes to Tom Bayes - The 2+2 Digest

The best laid plans...

First, I want to say that the I had outs girls run a fine, fine, tournament.

To Jordan: let's just make it clear that there was no way I was going to fold JJ, no matter what I put your range on - I would have called the raise, hit the flop like a drunk to a bottle and gotten my double up there. And you'd be surprised what I was raising with - I think the only time I was annoyed that you reraised me was when I had a hand I had to actually think about playing. :D

To Dawn, Alceste, and anyone else who fell prey to my unusually donkish ways: turns out the best way to accumulate chips is to play like Jordan! Errrr, I mean to play pretty loosely because you NEED to get to the train stations before the last one leaves the station so you start calling any short stack with pretty much anything and you start raising every two hands. .... hmmm maybe the Jordan crack isn't too out of line ... Anyway - if you are trying to bust, you will win every time you're behind and accumulate chips. [And yet, I'm too much of a competitor to play EVERY hand, hmm]

To Jordan, Toby, Karen and Matt - thanks for being sports about the deal and letting me get home safely [I'm on the train into NYC again so I can't do linkies I don't have memorized]

love,
the suckout princess, who will be driving in next time, despite the pain of finding parking.

Now this warms the cockles of my heart...

Hey maigrey great job in the HORSE last night. My guy [redacted] was at your table for the first hour or so, and I warned him profusely to stay the F away from any pots you were involved in. I had him on the girly chat, and it was funny to see the progression of his comments. First it was like "oh come on, a GIRL good at HORSE, give me a break", and then "wow maigrey just took a big pot off of me". Eventually it became "holy shit maigrey has more chips than the entire rest of the table combined", and finally deteriorated to "please PLEASE get me moved away from this table!". Funny stuff.

- from hoyazo

Poker After Dark

I must say, except for the stupid commentators, I really like the show - I especially like the fact that they don't cut out hands and we get to hear what a table really is like with all the chattering.  I also found it really interesting in last week's shows, that when it was heads up, David Grey and Daniel Negranu actually DID tell each other what their hands were.

But I think the most amusing thing is the new full tilt commercials.   This one's my current favorite:

You can see it here if the above doesn't work for you.

HORSE Fun

HORSE Fun,
originally uploaded by maigrey.

I (somewhat stupidly) decided to play in the HORSE tournament on full tilt last night. I managed to take a commanding chip lead and held it for a good portion of the time. I then got moved to Clonie's table and promptly went card dead.

I finished somewhere in the teens - I made the money but didn't get much for my effort except a lack of sleep.

Fun with triple draw ...

... is watching Chris Fargis and Greg Raymer two-table 30/60.  Crackers!

I think I may have created a monster here, so stay away from my table (if it's above $1/$2) unless you're an australian!  I hate blogger tables for real money.

But here is a question for you:
In triple draw, when you draw, do you make sure to have as many suits as possible, or do you not pay attention once you have two suits?

And another:
Do you discard right to left? Or do you not care...

Some amusement while talking to St. B about TDL on the old-skool chat thing:
<maigrey> that would be what we call a #3 [23567 for those of you playing at home]
<St B> I just had the nuts  :)
<maigrey> is that all?
<St B> that is how tight I am now
<maigrey> we call that a "whee"
<maigrey> er
<St B> lol
<maigrey> "wheel"
<maigrey> we call it a wheeeeee too

Triple Draw Tournaments

I got the heads up that Poker Stars is running Triple Draw Tournaments, so DiscoStacks and I checked one out last night. 

I'm sorry to say that the verdict is: The SUCK.  There is just not enough play in the game for the number of chips you get (T$1500), and the blinds move at the same level and timeframe as HE - the problem is, you don't get good hands as often in TDL as you do in HE, so after an hour if you haven't gotten monsters, you get horked with a short stack.

Save your money for now, try again if they modify the structure to have more chips - I think running it as a doublestack tournament would be the best way to do it - $3000 chips is about right.

But at least this hasn't happened to me...

[Also, I highly recommend semagic as a blogger posting client (it does LJ too)]

My TDL lessons

First off, Happy New Year, everyone. 2007 is off to an auspicious start - I went to AC for NYE and didn't put a chip on a table, AND I drank three (at least) whole beers. Gasp - what is this world coming too???

So, as promised, the TDL post. First, a primer on TDL, courtesy of BadBlood - read that first if you're not familiar before moving on.

Things I have learned about TDL, mostly courtesy of DiscoStacks:
. Playing without a 2 is very shady
. An 87 low is the DEBBIL, but sometimes evil holds up - it's like having KQ on a K 8 7 board - lots of hands out there are better than yours, but you still are likely good
. There are all sorts of crazy people playing this game - people who cap predraw and then drop 4
. nothing hurts worse than having an 8 perfect (85432) get cracked by someone who draws two on the river and hits his 76
. I need to fold much more preflop, and reraise more when I'm going to play
. 3-5-7 is really not a pretty hand to start with - it is the equivalent of KT or K9 s00ted, because of all the straight possibilities, so don't be calling it for a raise, even in the blind
. 2357, on the other hand, is like having cowboys preflop
. alcohol helps dull the variance pain
. 3456 is the A9o of TDL. Just fold it and save yourself the pain - it's not as pretty as it looks, because you're drawing to a horrible 8. [Garth prefers to fold this hand and set it on fire]
. the sweetest chips are the ones you get from running the wheel (23457 in TDL speak) into #2 (23467) and getting paid off all the way