Seven Five Off

I lost a couple heads up tourneys ($5+25). Then I decided it was time for some good old fashioned pokah. 4 people? Sure! Oh, this is a heads up tourney too?

So now I need to make up some money. How about a $5+50 18 person. That might help get me out of this $26 hole.

I’ve noticed of late that my early tourney work is pretty annoying. A combination of the expensive laydowns, ugly suckouts and pure gambling gets my chips down low. Then I fight back to my starting number. Then sometimes down again. And up again. I can’t pull it off in a Turbo - but in a regular speed tourney it works out fine.

I noticed there were MUCH better players in the 5+50 18 man. Nobody playing too stupid, mostly tight good play, seeing some good betting strategy. It was nice. It was nicer to come in first and get $36. That puts us +$10.

I like this pokah. Good stuff.

I deposited into my FTP account. Over 3 days I’m down $3.95 - so nothing really yet.

I did something really mean. It was great. I’m playing a heads up $5+.50 and we’re both playing pretty tight. I’m picking up a bunch of the blinds, but then he’ll hit a hand - so we end up pretty even.

At one point I have a 300+ chip lead on him and he goes all-in. I had two pair, but there were trips to be had, and I had him on the trips, but I felt like he needed a call. Guess what I found out? I’ve had a lot of practice recently coming back from the tiny stack.

Until this point I’m playing kinda slow. I’m doing my best to control the pace of the game, because people tend to move pretty fast. I’m speeditupslowitdownspeeditup tick tick… nothing too obnoxious.

I know I have one hell of a hole to crawl out of. I know I can do it without too much problem - double up a couple times and I’m good. So I decide to play r e a l l y s l o w .

I’m waiting 15 seconds before calls. God forbid I’m the big blind, he might have to wait about a minute from when he calls till he can act again. What do I care? I’m controlling the pace, I’m slated to lose, and I’m tired. I double up. Then again. So we’re around 1100 to 1900. I’m still playing slow. Finally I get a “why so slow?”. I don’t reply. Then it flips. I’m 1800 to his 1200. I’m still playing slow. “come on”.

Obviously I got to him. I was playing slow, so it made him mad and more loose aggressive hoping to push me out and end this goddamn slow heads up tourney. It was a great tactic, and it really worked.

Then I really pissed him off.

Flop comes

He had bet hard preflop. Bet on flop. I knew this meant he had a hand, and probably an ace. I had . Turn comes I try a high bluff bet - he comes all in. I know I have him covered and figure I can take him down somehow. I just came back from nothing.

I say shit. Well back to the grind.

“You placed 1st $10 will be credited to your account”

River.

Straight beats trip aces.

Talk about insult to injury. Glad it was me holding the beatdown stick.

That’s Mr.

Earlier in the week I was mucking cards in my sleep. OK.

But then I looked down and see 9-5-6-7-7.

First thought - “F**k! I missed the straight on the river!”

Problem? It was my car’s odometer.

(of course, the next thought was I mighta hit the trips)

Some may say:

Mr. ,

I love playing poker online. There is only one problem. When I play at my home game I keep my winning mojo going with a deck of nudie cards and staring at the fish tanks.

No fear - these Tilt Boys got you covered: http://www.tiltboys.com/gallery/albums.php with nudie cards and a few other things to try out.

“But Mr. ,” you say “I need to feel like I’m rolling in a bed covered in money, or playing basketball, or in a Buddhist Temple and if all those fail I need to rub my lucky Chris Ferguson doll.” Well partner, artpoker.net has got you covered on all counts. Sure they won’t just let you download the photos and they make you install some app that probably lets in spyware - but that’s why you have a PC isn’t it? (Buy a mac.)

Need something more spectac? More YOU!? Make it.

Get your mojo on!

A semi-private poker blog.