I have been a naughty blogger. 3 months or so without posting!!! Wow!! Anyhow I just posted this on the TNT blog.
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I am also reading Tommy Angelo’s ELEMENTS OF POKER. So far I am enjoying his unique, refreshing style. A book review will follow once I am done. I also have KILL EVERYONE to read. I started it but put it on the back burner when I got “Elements”.
So that’s where I am at these days. Playing more online, still chipping away at LPT tourney’s and the occasional Dooly’s tourney. Once I got the books and PSO promo done, I suspect I will have alot more to say….”
Stay tuned…..
If anyone wonders how many interceptions Manning threw last weekend, they say a picture is worth a thousand words
http://www.footballguys.com/dailyupdatephotos/PeytonInterceptions.htm
No suspension on this one folks. The NHL really needs to start cleaning up it’s act and protect players. I will argue the following points, and this really has me steaming
Dirty hit, our best forward gets boarded, a cross check to the back of the head directly into the boards. What a joke the NHL is making of our game…
here is the video http://youtube.com/watch?v=esZi79o_OyI
The Colts lost to the Chargers last night 23-21. Manning Threw 6 picks and Adam Vinatieri missed 2 field goals from a very makable distance. For most of last night’s postgame coverage, Peyton Manning could do no wrong. Madden kept saying how he was adding to his legacy by managing to compete in a game where he threw 6 picks. NBC’s crew resounded this sentiment in the studio. Manning came back, he had multiple weapons taken away from him, they even mentioned how this game demonstrated why he is the best QB in the league.
I was about the tune off from the show by throwing my remote through my outdated very replaceable TV set when “Neon” Deion Sanders came on. Expecting him to jump on the “Manning ALMOST pulled through against all odds and is the greatest” bandwagon he shocked me. Chuckling, he said “didn’t anyone else just watch him throw 6 picks?” He didn’t have Harrison but he had Reggie Wayne and Joseph Addai!!”. He also pointed out how Brady won 3 rings without much as far as offensive weapons go (pre 2007) and this year might be the proof that Brady is better. I have always dodged the old Manning versus Brady debate. I think football being such a team sport, teams sporting such different styles, different personnel and different systems that such debates seem as silly as comparing apples and oranges. I must admit that I felt a guilty pleasure seeing someone from the NFL media question Manning’s play. I have always said that Peyton is a very good QB. He is easily in the top 5-6 QB’s I have ever seen play. Take away some of his weapons, weaken his surroundings a bit and he is affected. Neither he or anyone else can ever live up to the hype of being a super human football freak like he is made out to be.
Wow, what a ride… 24-20 good guys. It’s 20 minutes or so after the win. Here are a few thoughtson how the Colts almost managed to upset the pats today:
Tough loss for the Colts. If everything holds to form and both teams have an equal number of slip ups, the Pats will now have the No.1 seed in AFC (actually the Pats can lose one game more and win the head to head tie-breaker). It’s going to be extra hard if the Colts have to come to Foxborough and beat the Pats. Looks like the Pats just broke serve and are in a great position…
We are 15 minutes away from the big game. Pats versus Colts, two undefeated teams, Pats being a big favorite (6 points last time i check) on the road and the hype is on full power for this game. This rivalry has gone to another level with the Pats taking on more of a villain role. Some of the hype is granted, but for myself, I see this as an opportunity to setup the next Pats vs Colts matchup. I don’t think that this rivalry is quite there yet, but here are a few things I think could happen today that would make this rivalry Sox vs Yanks like….
1- A lineman rolls over Brady’s ankle in a questionable late hit, putting Brady’s season in jeopardy
2- A lineman roll over Manning’s ankle in a questionable late hit, putting Mannings season in jeopardy
3- In a 28 point route Donte Stallworth scores with 1:30 left in the fourth and taunts the team/fans/stadium in an outrageous fashion
4- The colts come up with the win and reclaim they’re spot at the top of everyone’s power rankings
I would argue, that the emergence of a storyline like one of these 4 is a lot more relevant then the final score of the game. This rivalry has an opportunity to take that next level today!!! Football is not like baseball, you play everyone out of your division once a year, this is a rare non playoff opportunity to add to the mystique of this feud…
The result of the game is somewhat irrelevant in my view. Barring a big win (10 points or more) by the colts, things should remain status quo. The colts holding serve at home wouldn’t really mean anything. These teams are virtual locks for the top 2 seeds in playoffs. It’s quite probably they will meet in the conference championships. In my opinion the pats really have nothing to lose. They do have some to gain though. Imagine they “break serve” in a big way tonight…. how much momentum would that create for a potentional conference championship game IN FOXBOROUGH!!!
IMO, pats have no pressure tonight, they have a freeroll!!! Well the show is about to start, I am off….
The 2nd lef of the 3rd season of the LPT was quite interesting. When I sat at my first table, I am not sure I liked my draw. I saw Dan, Scott and Annie all sitting at my table, plus I had the unpredictable unreadable “I randomly decided to throw all my chips in” type sitting to my left. I knew I was in for a strange night. I took a quick glance at the blind structure and noticed the blind levels we decided to take out of our regular structure. We didn’t want to run the game until 4:00 am again, but these seemed a bit agressive! The big bad stack hungry blinds were out to get me!
After I got over that initial “structure anxiety” I settled down once the poker started. My table featured a couple of crazy hands including Dango’s quads that take out a boat….
Most of my evening was quite uneventful. In the 3rd level or so, I got a reminder that even though our tournament structure is somewhat forgiving, losing one significant pot early puts you at a dissavantage. You miss with one or two “moves” early and you have to be careful from there on in.
After the initial level or two, I clamed up and got into that weird tight/rock mode I sometimes get into when I am not playing well. I layed down A-9 in the BB versus a raise from the small blind twice! She was acting very strong and I knew this meant something but I couldn’t figure it out. Confusion made me doubt myself, both scenario’s called for Push or fold…. I failed to pull the trigger on both occasions. I was told afterwards that I was looking at a cointoss in the first scenario and the second time I was ahead. I beleive it, makes perfect sense… Shortly After the second of those hands, I managed to triple up with pocket 10’s and move to the final table with a decent stack.
Going to the final table with 12-13 BB’s, I didn’t feel good about my chances. Having a slightly below chip stack, I really didn’t feel like I “had it” on this night. I just couldn’t think clearly at the table. It’s been quite a while since I have felt this way and I found it quite frustrating. I finally pushed 5 bb’s with K-10 and got beat by the chip leader’s A-x. I got felted in 8th place and was void of that “bustout remorse” that I typically get after competing hard for a few hours in a significant poker tournamet. This lack of desperation has me a bit concerned about my poker mindset these days. I am undecided if I am starting to lack confidence or if I am just going through the motions and counting on the fact that we are going to play these tournaments until we all grow old and that I have plenty of time to redeem myself. Weird night indeed…
In a few month’s when I look at Tim’s spreadsheet and see that I finished 8th of out 30 runners, I know I will be tempted to see this as a decent result. I can’t fall into that trap. I played pretty badly friday and need to make some corrections to my mindset in the near future if i want to have any success in the LPT….
Have been watching most of the “Poker After Dark” episodes this week and it’s been very entertaining. They have dubbed it a “Mega Match” because the participants threw in 50K each instead of the ordinary 20K. The lineup is Cunningham, Harman, Ivey, Greenstein, Elezra and Benyamine. Doyle Brunson was supposed to play but he showed up in the later stages to watch/commentate and explained pulling out, due to an important cardiologist appointment he had to go to.
The most interesting thing about this week’s episode:
It’s quite interesting how TV poker production has evolved with it’s audience. I remember early on with the World Poker Tour the focus on big hands for big pots. You were almost lead to believe that the TV table was the most important moment of the player’s life. Nowadays it seems like poker viewers are not as interested in the poker as the are about all the other stuff going on with the players at the table. We all want to hear about the prop bets, we all want to hear how a player is looking to donk off they’re chips to go out golfing. We all want to hear the casual chit chat going on between players like Greenstein and Ivey that almost makes the $300 000 payoff seem irrelevant. I mean even Jennifer Harman was stating how she felt like dead money but didn’t really seem to care about it. It’s a fare cry from “this is the biggest moment of this poker’s life”. The focus has definitely moved from what’s going on the felt, to what is going on from beyond the felt. It’s the evolution of TV poker, and it’s refreshing to see that poker productions are monitoring they’re fans closely.
I won the finals of season 2. This was definitely the biggest win of my poker life. It was my biggest win ever on multiple levels:
- It was the most money I ever won in a tournament
- It was the most important tournament I ever played in
- I played some of my best poker on my way to winning
The most gratifying thing about my finals win last season was the way I won. One of my key thoughts before the tournament was to try and avoid getting bluffed out of big pots. I genuinely felt some people were taking shots at me in big pots and I wanted to make sure that any fold I made in a big pot was done carefully.
The way I won the LPT final is almost as gratifying to me as the fact that I won it. It almost felt like the entire Season 2 was practice for the final and I had to use the knowledge gained thru that practice to make the correct plays. I had 3 key hands to propelled me to my victory.
hand 1: We are 2 tables, 13 runners left, Jeff Mickey is sitting 4 seats to my left. In a previous season 2 tournament, Jeff crippled me very early where he would call my in position raise, and take the pot away from me with a fairly sizable bet on the flop. This must have happened 4-5 times during the brief period I was in the tournament, I figured this was a favorite play of his and he couldn’t have the hand every time… Fast Forward to our key hand in the finals:
The blinds are 150-300, I have around 3K in chips, he has the button and throws me A-Q. I make it 800 T to go. When i see Jeff call from the button I feel a bit of inner panic. Quickly, by the time the blinds get out the way, I decide that I am going to push any safe flop that does not hit me, and check raise my stack if I get a good piece of the flop. He had a bit more chips then I did, but not a whole lot, I knew I had to take a steal away from him, I was very confident if I checked the flop that he would take it away from me with a big bet. I push All-In on a rainbow 10-x-x flop. He thinks for a couple of minutes and folds. I thought of Moneymaker when he pulled off that big bluff in the biggest tournament in history and exhaled emphatically in relief when the bluff worked. This was my main event, I got a bit of a glimpse on how he felt….
Hand 2: We are 9 handed in the tourney, I have around 4.5 K in chips, blinds are 200-400 ish. I pickup pocket Jacks in middle position and raise to 1000 T. Whitey, a player with a very solid tight image pushes me all in from the cut off. The button and blinds fold. I have to think here again. I get him to count it, he has around 3.8K in chips. JJ is a stinky hand to bust out on especially against a player with a tight image. I really don’t feel like going into a coin toss situation either. After he counts out he is chips, I ask Whitey if he wanted a call. He gave me a witty answer, but he said in a robotic way, it’s like his voice was not synchronized with his brain. My opponent seemed worried about his hand, I decide to call. He turns over A-J versus my JJ, I have him dominated. I dodge an ace and pick up the pot. I know have a big stack and feel good about my chances…
Hand 3: We are now 3 handed, Joe is to my right with 33k in chips, I have 24K and Matt 13K. Joe just busted out Tina to grab the chip lead and has shown alot of aggression since we broke to 6 handed or so. I deal myself A-J offsuite on the button and raise to 6K. Matt folds, Joe fairly quickly reraises me all-In!! I now go in the tank. If i fold here, I stay in second in chips but give Joe a nice chip lead and a lot of momentum. If I call and am wrong, I am busted. I didn’t even consider EV considerations of positioning myself to finish second. Anything short of winning this tourney is going to be a disappointment, period. I knew Joe could be putting me on a steal and could himself be restealing. I also knew that Joe was chip leader and had no reason to do anything drastic at this point. I took a couple of minutes to study my opponent. Something tells me that he is at the very least slightly worried about a call. This helps me eliminate hands like AA-KK-QQ. The remaining hands in the range I can put Joe on gives me a slight edge to call. Again, my emphasis on not folding the best hand in this tourney dictates a call. So I call, and Joe shows A-10, the only hand in his range that I am a heavy favorite against. The A-J holds up, I win the pot and go on to win the tournament.
So there is a bit of a summary of my finals victory. What does this have to do with season 3 you might ask? There are a lot of players that have a shot at winning the major titles (POY and LPT Champion) this season, but there is in my opinion, a handful of people that form a “top tier”, the people that have the best shot at winning. IMO, those people do things like recognize situations they have faced before, and adapt they’re decision making accordingly. You want names??? I will give you one…… Oh wait a second, everyone remembers who won the “superbowl of the LPT”…
Good luck in season 3 everyone….
I have decided to start posting again on this blog. I am thinking of broadening the range of it. Instead of going exclusively with the sometimes deep poker though on here, I am going to start posting about other interests like Food, Sports and books….
The audience for this blog clearly becomes myself. If looking for poker content, have a look at the team nevertilt blog at nevertilt.com/teamnevertilt
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jour·nal n. A personal record of occurrences, experiences, and reflections kept on a regular basis; a diary.
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Honey! Honey! I was supposed to go broke on that hand, honey, except they forgot one thing: I can dodge bullets, baby.
- Phil Helmuth
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