Sloe Times

So, I've traded for a night of peace and am hitting the 10+1 SNG tables on Party. This will of course cost me baby-sitting time all day tomorrow, but that's fair I suppose.

The first tourney was going well until we were down to 6 handed and I did something really stupid. I've got AKs and I raise it up pre-flop and get one caller. The flop is rags and my opponent is first to act. He goes all in to scrape the ~$400 pot. I called. I don't know what the hell I was thinking. The flop missed me, there was one of my suit up. I knew as soon as I clicked the call button I had made a mistake and couldn't figure out why I did it. I was flirting between 1 & 2 in chipstack before that dumb ass move. His TT held up and I was gone shortly after. Next!

Second try went even worse than before. I limped in with A5s on level one and it's raised up a bit and called by a short stack. I tried to make a play to isolate the short stack and raise it up enough to bring him all in. The original raiser also calls. The flop is 5xJ. I look at it for a bit and check. The raiser way underbets the pot with 60 against a 710 pot so I call with my bottom pair. The turn is a blank but I check again and the raiser again underbets the pot. I'm thinking maybe he's on big cards and didn't hit anything. The river brings an A which gives me two pair so I'm pretty happy but check anyway. The raiser shoves so I figure him for something like AK or AQ and quickly call. Turns out he had pocket jacks for the set on the flop. All things concidered, he played me like a fiddle on that one. Flushed on level one. Next!

Nothing spectacular about attempt #3. Played well, but just can't beat runner-runner draws. Going for a fourth attempt, if that fails I'm gonna take a break for a bit.

Fourth time was the charm and a bitch of a fight it was. Didn't play any different than before really (except I didn't call people down when I had nothing like the first SNG) but it was a tight/passive table and I didn't catch cards at all. When I did I ended up on the worst end of it. Classic example TT (me) vs. AKo Flop KxA, Turn, K, River x. I think my comment was, "I believe the dealer just gave me the big F U." That happened a number of times, but thanks to solid play and being the chip leader at this weak table I was able to steal blinds and pots relatively regularly to keep me on top. A potentially questionable play was being the BB with K3o in an unraised pot and the flop is T3T. I check it and the person immediately to my left goes all-in. The table folds around to me and I stared into his electronic soul until the time had almost run out and I called. Turns out that was the right play because he had nothing and caught nothing. He said I was "BS" to which I replied, "Yep, you found me out d00d". I usually don't chat too much at the table unless I know someone there but his next comment apparently pushed my social button because I was chatty for the rest of the game. He comes back with, "the table saw" and I couldn't resist, "Yep, saw you bust out". I'm an ass. The all time best though was a little later. We're down to 5 handed and the blinds are 50/100. I catch AT in the small blind and raise it to 200 after the table folds around to me. BB calls and the flop is 5,A,2. Ok, that's crap but I got top pair and don't figure this guy would call a raise with 2,3 so I bet out 400 and he comes over the top of me all-in for 750. Well, he might have me out-kicked but 350 more to call a 1500 pot seems worth a go, so I call. The turn is a Q and the river is an A. Yay, I made a set. Our antagonist on the other hand was playing 5Ts (of which none of his suit came on the flop). So, for calling his bluff and knocking him out, he gives me the official Party congrats for having a good hand and knocking him out in 5th, 'n i g g e r'. I'd be offended but there's two problems here, I'm not black and, well I won and he lost. :) As one of the other players put it, I guess I upset him.

Obviously, I'm happy that I won, but it wasn't exactly a stellar performance. Aw well, I am getting back into the groove and I'm seriously trying to tone down the early round agression to avoid the out draws that seriously wound or bust me out.

Something occured to me just now. Journalling my play has been a great tool for talking through my mistakes and learning from them (most of the time). On the other hand now I've given a nice edge to the other bloggers and readers who are going to play in the Blogger's Tourney. Hmm. Everything I've written for the last three months is all lies, pay no attention here. You don't know me, I'll ownz j0r chIpz! All your checks are belong to me! ;)

For what it's worth, David Gray isn't bad to listen to while playing.