Moved to a new place

Again my blog has moved to here:

http://mookie99.bigopokerroom.com

Thanks to all of you who have hooked me up with a link. Please update the link to the above....

Blog Has Moved !!

I have moved my blog and all past posts here:

http://mookie99.bigopokerroom.com/

Post Lite

I haven't been playing too much online this week so far. At the beginning of the week I continued my bad run by losing two more SNGs. I decided to change things up a little and play a 4-person Heads UP SNG, winner take all.

Both matches were very long (200 total hands played) and in the end I was lucky enough to win.

I have only played one other time online and that was a single table SNG. Down to 4 players, blinds were 100/200, I had 3,710 in chips and UTG had 2,570: JJ in the BB. There was one limper UTG, SB called and I raised to 1,000. UTG calls and SB folds.

The flop is 9c Kd Qc. What would you do now with JJ ?

I won't post anyting more about the hand for now, except to say I lost and was knocked down to about 1,200 chips. I stayed aggresive though and in the end I was able to pull out the win.

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Misc.

The first bounty tournament of the year at the Big O Poker Room is this Saturday.

Mrs. Mookie continues to run well...she took 3rd in a 45 person tourney on Pokerstars.

Scotty Nguyen won his 1st WPT title this week.

Topless poker in Vegas.

Sunday SNGs at Aladdin Poker Room in Vegas are now internet style.

Congrats to Chris at 21Outs for winning the WSOP Circuit Limit 3 Draw Low-ball event.

Weekend update

I wasn't planning on playing any live poker this weekend as we weren't able to find a babysitter for our five runts (imagine that). However, MM was kind enough to stay behind and watch the kiddos while I went and played at the 2006 Winter Series of Poker Event 1 at Jim and Stacey's.

In retrospect, she should have made the trip and left me behind as she has been running better than me lately.

The tournament had 16 players and had the options of a single rebuy and add-on. Most players started with 17K in chips (you get 1k for registering online and another 1k for showing up on time). Blinds started at 100/200 and went up every 20 minutes. One of the nice things about playing there is that there are players who don't play at the Big O Poker Room. It's always refreshing to play against different players.

Right out of the gate, I lost 9k within the first level in two different hands. The first one, I flopped two pair against a flopped straight and the second one I flopped an open ended straight flush draw that didn't get there.

Since there was only one rebuy, I tightened up and didn't play too many pots over the next level. In the last minute of the last level (300/600 blinds) before rebuys ended, I called off the rest of my chips (3k) with J6c and was up against AKo and AQd. I flopped two pairs and tripled up giving me around 10K going into the first break.

I rebought and did the add-on to give me about 25k chips to start the next level (blinds 400/800).

I could never get above average for the rest of the tournament. Anytime I would gain a little momentum, I would lose a key pot. I lost a big chunk of my stack when I limped in with QJs and flopped and turned a J, only to be outkicked by the SB with AJ.

I never got a pair higher than 5's for the night and my biggest pots were won with the J6 hand I mentioned earlier, 73o (bluff), and QJs (semi-bluff). With blinds at 1,500/3,000, UTG+1 raised to 9k. It folds to me in the BB, and with a total of 24k (including my 3k BB) I jam with AKh. UTG+1 calls with 77. 665 on the flop and a 7 on the turn and IGHN in 12th place (I think).

Jim and Bern ended up chopping heads up and Stacey finished 3rd. A very nice finish for the hosts.

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After busting out of the tournament I went home and played some online at Pokerstars. I started out playing micro (.10/.25) NL cash and quickly lost $15 when I ran QQ into KK on a T high flop. I then played a 3-table SNG. My starting table was pretty wild, nearly each hand had a pre-flop raise and then a re-raise. I layed pretty low and then ran AA into quad tens to end my tournament in 21st place.

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Congratulations to Absinthe for taking down the $300 NL Event #1 at the LA Poker Classic (Commerce) for $113,000 and change.

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Toby "Moneymaker" and Justin made a trip up to the Winstar Casino in Oklahoma (Texas/Oklahoma border). There trip was very profitable as Toby won 2nd in a 54 person tournament for around $1,200 plus another $200 or so playing in the cash games. Justin won around $600 in the cash games plus another $250 hitting a bonus hand in blackjack.

Toby said they have around 30 poker tables and spread NL and limit hold 'em. They have tournaments Monday-Thursday. They played the tournament and $1/$2 NL cash. Toby said the competition seemed pretty soft (must be if these two donkeys finished up....just kidding)

Also, since the legal gambling age in this casino is 18, the players there are ready to gamboool.

The Winstar is only about 4 hours away Austin, so I am sure we will be making a trip(s) up there soon.

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It looks like the Big O Poker Room will be having the 3rd tournament of the season this Saturday. It will be a rebuy/bounty tournament. More details will be posted on the Big O website.

Slow week

This has been a slow week for blogging as I have been pretty busy with work stuff. I hadn't played any online poker until last night and even then I only played 1 SNG.

Early on, I played loose (donkey) and picked up a couple of larger pots. Here is an example of my donkey-like play:

Blinds 10/20, I limp in MP with Kh5h, player next to me limps, and the button raises to 60. The BB calls, I call and the player next to me calls.

The flop was 8h 9s Qh. We all checked to the button who bet 75. The BB called, I called and the other player folded.

Now the turn is (8h 9s Qh) 6s. The BB goes all in for 295. Now this is where my true inner donkey takes over. I am getting about 2.5 to 1 on my money, but I don't know the BB is going to do. At this point I think I have about 12 outs, but 3 of those may be dead outs to a higher straight. The play here is to probably fold or jam (or not be a donkey and limp in with K5). So I of course just call. The button just calls as well.

The river is (8h 9s Qh 6s) 2h. I lead out with a bet of 400 and the button calls. Button had KsQs and the BB had Jd8c. With that pot, I was 2nd in chips.

I stayed in 2nd until we got down to 5 players. I lost over half my stack trying to run JJ past AQ with 2 Qs on board and having the ass-end of a straight against the higher straight. With the blinds going up, I switched gears and became more aggresive and chipped back up.

Made it into the money and continued to play aggresive. I knock out the 3rd place finisher and take a slight chiplead heads up. We play a couple hands before I outflop his TT with KQ and win.

This makes my 3rd SNG win in a row. I should probably play more SNG instead of cash as I haven't done too well in the cash games lately and that's where I have been spending most of my time.

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Here are few new(to me) blogs I have been reading:

Pokerstars.com Official Blog

Sound of a Suckout

Poker with WillWonka

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No poker at the Big O Poker Room but we may go over to the 2006 Winter Series of Poker Event 1 at Jim and Stacey's if we can find a babysitter.

Stuck in neutral

I played a lot of live poker this weekend. All small low buy-in NLHE tournaments. I ended up cashing in 3 out of 4 tournaments, but broke completely even. (Never higher than a 3rd place finish)

On Saturday, Season 3 at the Big O Poker Room began with a smaller rebuy tournament with 12 players.

First hand of the tournament at the other table, somone suggests everyone go all-in blind since A. It's the first tournament of the new season and B. It's a rebuy tournament. Well 4 players did, including Mrs. Mookie, and her QJ won. So right off the bat she started with close to 70K in chips.

That was pretty much the theme for the night at that table, as they had 8 rebuys there to our 1 rebuy at our table. After the rebuy period ended things calmed back down.

I love playing short handed, and early on I was able to chip up by playing a lot of small pots cheaply.

There was a huge hand at the other table between Pants and Mrs. Mookie. She limped in on the button and Pants checked his option in the BB. The flop was A A T rainbow. Pants checked while commenting "I'll slowplay", Mrs. Mookie responded "I won't" and pushed all-in. Now she was the chipleader, however, Pants had just doubled up by hitting a straight flush and had alot of chips as well. He called and turned over A9, while Mrs. Mookie had TT. No help for Pants and Mrs. Mookie went over 100K in chips.

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CORRECTION: Pants checked the flop, Mrs. Mookie bet the flop and Pants called. On the turn Pants checked and MM went all-in and Pants called
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We went to the final table with 10 players and I had an above average stack. Since both players that busted came from the other table, (and because of the 8 rebuys) they all had monster chips.
I took a tough beat early on to make me a shortstack. This kept me from playing many pots. We lost a few players and I continued to nurse the shortstack. Meanwhile, Mrs. Mookie took a tough beat against Mikey and that brought her back to the pack.

With the blinds moving up and my stack staying the same, I pushed all-in with ATd and ran into the recent bracelet winner's (aka Toby Moneymaker) QQ. Luckily for me, an ace came on the turn and I doubled up.

We made it down to 5 players and saved a few crumbs for 5th. After losing Jim in 5th, I lost a couple of large pots, one to Mrs. Mookie and again found myself on the shortstack. Moneymaker knocked me out when we raced his 99 vs my KJ.

In the end, Mrs. Mookie faced Mikey heads up. Mikey had a 3-1 chiplead and was able to pull out the win.

We ended up playing another tournament that night, and my 11 yr. old daughter played. She ended up knocking me out and finished 3rd.

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Last night I played a small tourney and squeaked into the money. Went home and played a little online while watching Friends: Season 2 with my wife (And no I don't want to hear any "You know how I know you're gay.." references)

Here comes the weekend

Not much going on these past couple of days. I have played a little online, but pretty much break-even poker. No exciting hands and only cash games.

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On Saturday, we will start Season 3 at the Big O Poker Room. We will be unveiling pictures of the 2005 Top Ten Money Leaders, 2005 Top Ten Points Leaders, and of course the 2005 Big O TOC winner. These will hang on the wall inside the Big O Poker Room. (that is until Mrs. Mookie makes me take them down)

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One of these days I want to buy some nice custom ceramic (casino-like) poker chips for the Big O. Bad Blood is getting ready to buy some for his home game. He is buying them from HomePokerChips and look like this.

It looks like it will cost me about $1200 to get a customized set of 1,000. That's a lot of wampum, but one of these days...maybe.

Well that's all for now, have a good weekend....