Fourth... Again
Been a bit of a whirlwind week up here in Chester, PA. I went to high school in Delaware and my brother lives there now with his wife and two daughters. So, I've been crashing in Wilmington, with them being very gracious about my tournament poker hours of arriving at 2:30 a.m and leaving at 11:30. It's great to see my nieces they are so sweet. One of them scored in the first half of a soccer game I watched Saturday morning.
Let's get to the WSOP-C. Hmmm... Chester is... let's see... how to put it delicately... the murder suburb of Philadelphia? Yeah, got lost a couple of times and got that feeling that maybe I should run every red light and never stop. Dave Capelle did a bit about a little crack baby on the corner in Chicago. Yeah, I saw the same baby at 2 am just standing there in a diaper and nothing else. Okay, I didn't... I think even fearing for my life in say downtown Baghdad during "shock and awe" I'd stop for a random baby standing on the corner. But it felt like there would be one... that's the vibe of Chester.
On my first day there thanks to Eric Harkins of Image Masters and Kenny Milam, I got interviewed by a local Philadelphia TV station for a feature to be aired... I don't know when... it hasn't been on the news yet as far as I know. Maybe it will be right before the Main Event. Going to drown my brother's TiVo with all the news recordings until it airs. Which is kind of pointless. I hate the way I look and sound on TV or videotape so I will probably watch it once turn red and never want to see it again.
I miss my wife and two kids. It's difficult being away. I keep reminding myself the points chase is for them, even though last time I left for this long my son was mad at me for two days and told me never to leave like that again. Anybody, else get their heart pulled out of their chest by a two year old? Tough.
Been using the Tango app on my phone to talk to him face to face as much as I can while here.
My wife's parents and her sister have been invaluable watching our son and baby girl. They've been super patient and understanding with me being away and Jess working full time (and going to school).
Okay what about the poker.
Some weird themes and threads continued here...
-I keep running two pair into a set early to lose most of my chips. The first couple of days I couldn't avoid flopping two pair and being second best by the end of the hand. Usually losing the minimum but hating it.
-Busted out near the bubble of the rentry tournament with AQ sooted v. 99. Just insane how many times since the IP Main Event I run into that permutation for my tournament life.
-I keep getting super short and grinding my way back to a decent stack.
-I continued to play bad vs. women. I ran bluffs into three of them after amassing a big stack in the re-entry tournament. Amanda Muscemi, a big stack running on a super heater, outplayed me in one where in retrospect my story made little sense. She min-raised from LP. In the bb I look at two pieces of garbage and called. Flop came K33. I checked she bet. I called. Turn was a rag. I checked raised and she called after some deliberation. Likely, there she was committed to the hand. Don't know if I had enough to bet to get her off even if I shoved. I tried a value bet bluff which was futile with all her chips why not call especially since, as I was told she couldn't lose a showdown. I mucked and she showed K9 or 10. Silly, she's one of the better players here, no need to mix it up with here in that spot. She probably can only give me credit for say A3 and knows she beats any King I have and just about every other hand. So a call is super standard there.
The other two weren't quite as bad and my lines were probably more believable though I got outplayed in a spot where I think my opponent Laura or Lana also had air. Again, a paired board with a K (though with a more reasonable 99 or something). Notice another weird trend? Yeah, well, if two times didn't convince me that the line didn't work. I did it a third time OOP with a girl on a K66 board who called me at showdown with KJ but said she would have folded if I shoved. I thought I bet enough in relation to the pot, wasn't a silly value bet bluff, but couldn't get her off the hand. It's one thing to know where you are in the hand and a more important thing to know if your opponent can fold their hand. BTW, these were at three separate tables and I think I had the image of super nit at all but Musemeci's table so time was ripe to bluff.
Okay, the event I placed fourth in today...
Got down to 2300 by level three.
Got down to 10 bbs twice more.
Got short stacked just before the bubble paying off Peter Ippolito in a couple of hands. Folded the first and paid off a more obvious hand because he did something exactly the same and I needed to know what that read on him indicated. It meant he had it.
Later I figured out something he did when he didn't have it. As he was one of the top three players in the money, I thought I would be well equipped for latter play. Course I had to make it there and my call made me shortish.
As I did a couple of times in this weird tournament I got to a hand where I thought about shoving because I was getting almost too low. But I wouldn't shove. In some weird quirk everytime the next hand I ended up with a big pair. Hello, Hello. Patience being rewarded in poker? Is that possible. Even better almost every time someone else had something. I got AA over JJ and KK over 1010 to quadruple up in short order, the second being an elimination. On the exact bubble those chips were in lockdown mode until I got the 10 points for the WSOP circuit race 15th would get.
Other times I was short and got a big pair... earlier in the day, a very aggressive La Sengphet raised my blind again from the button. I had just gotten down to about ten bbs. Ummm... AA? Really, shove. She called, she actually had a hand KK. Wow. Very next hand tightest player I've seen in a long time raises with me in the small blind. I look at the same two red aces, wtf... um three bet. He insta mucks 1010 disgustedly (what...) despite being on the short stack too (double what...).
to be continued...
Let's get to the WSOP-C. Hmmm... Chester is... let's see... how to put it delicately... the murder suburb of Philadelphia? Yeah, got lost a couple of times and got that feeling that maybe I should run every red light and never stop. Dave Capelle did a bit about a little crack baby on the corner in Chicago. Yeah, I saw the same baby at 2 am just standing there in a diaper and nothing else. Okay, I didn't... I think even fearing for my life in say downtown Baghdad during "shock and awe" I'd stop for a random baby standing on the corner. But it felt like there would be one... that's the vibe of Chester.
On my first day there thanks to Eric Harkins of Image Masters and Kenny Milam, I got interviewed by a local Philadelphia TV station for a feature to be aired... I don't know when... it hasn't been on the news yet as far as I know. Maybe it will be right before the Main Event. Going to drown my brother's TiVo with all the news recordings until it airs. Which is kind of pointless. I hate the way I look and sound on TV or videotape so I will probably watch it once turn red and never want to see it again.
I miss my wife and two kids. It's difficult being away. I keep reminding myself the points chase is for them, even though last time I left for this long my son was mad at me for two days and told me never to leave like that again. Anybody, else get their heart pulled out of their chest by a two year old? Tough.
Been using the Tango app on my phone to talk to him face to face as much as I can while here.
My wife's parents and her sister have been invaluable watching our son and baby girl. They've been super patient and understanding with me being away and Jess working full time (and going to school).
Okay what about the poker.
Some weird themes and threads continued here...
-I keep running two pair into a set early to lose most of my chips. The first couple of days I couldn't avoid flopping two pair and being second best by the end of the hand. Usually losing the minimum but hating it.
-Busted out near the bubble of the rentry tournament with AQ sooted v. 99. Just insane how many times since the IP Main Event I run into that permutation for my tournament life.
-I keep getting super short and grinding my way back to a decent stack.
-I continued to play bad vs. women. I ran bluffs into three of them after amassing a big stack in the re-entry tournament. Amanda Muscemi, a big stack running on a super heater, outplayed me in one where in retrospect my story made little sense. She min-raised from LP. In the bb I look at two pieces of garbage and called. Flop came K33. I checked she bet. I called. Turn was a rag. I checked raised and she called after some deliberation. Likely, there she was committed to the hand. Don't know if I had enough to bet to get her off even if I shoved. I tried a value bet bluff which was futile with all her chips why not call especially since, as I was told she couldn't lose a showdown. I mucked and she showed K9 or 10. Silly, she's one of the better players here, no need to mix it up with here in that spot. She probably can only give me credit for say A3 and knows she beats any King I have and just about every other hand. So a call is super standard there.
The other two weren't quite as bad and my lines were probably more believable though I got outplayed in a spot where I think my opponent Laura or Lana also had air. Again, a paired board with a K (though with a more reasonable 99 or something). Notice another weird trend? Yeah, well, if two times didn't convince me that the line didn't work. I did it a third time OOP with a girl on a K66 board who called me at showdown with KJ but said she would have folded if I shoved. I thought I bet enough in relation to the pot, wasn't a silly value bet bluff, but couldn't get her off the hand. It's one thing to know where you are in the hand and a more important thing to know if your opponent can fold their hand. BTW, these were at three separate tables and I think I had the image of super nit at all but Musemeci's table so time was ripe to bluff.
Okay, the event I placed fourth in today...
Got down to 2300 by level three.
Got down to 10 bbs twice more.
Got short stacked just before the bubble paying off Peter Ippolito in a couple of hands. Folded the first and paid off a more obvious hand because he did something exactly the same and I needed to know what that read on him indicated. It meant he had it.
Later I figured out something he did when he didn't have it. As he was one of the top three players in the money, I thought I would be well equipped for latter play. Course I had to make it there and my call made me shortish.
As I did a couple of times in this weird tournament I got to a hand where I thought about shoving because I was getting almost too low. But I wouldn't shove. In some weird quirk everytime the next hand I ended up with a big pair. Hello, Hello. Patience being rewarded in poker? Is that possible. Even better almost every time someone else had something. I got AA over JJ and KK over 1010 to quadruple up in short order, the second being an elimination. On the exact bubble those chips were in lockdown mode until I got the 10 points for the WSOP circuit race 15th would get.
Other times I was short and got a big pair... earlier in the day, a very aggressive La Sengphet raised my blind again from the button. I had just gotten down to about ten bbs. Ummm... AA? Really, shove. She called, she actually had a hand KK. Wow. Very next hand tightest player I've seen in a long time raises with me in the small blind. I look at the same two red aces, wtf... um three bet. He insta mucks 1010 disgustedly (what...) despite being on the short stack too (double what...).
to be continued...
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