Where peace is not a pie ...Rick's Cafe Americain

Perhaps we could slow the tide with protectionist policies, but I worry about other negative effects on our economy that protectionism can have.  What frustrates me, is that none of the candidates and neither party are discussing what we should be doing to prepare for the coming global economy.  I am not economist and no soothsayer, but certain things seem obvious to me (1) no matter what, manufacturing style jobs are going to increasingly be performed in China, India and other “rising” nations with cheap labor; (2) America’s share of the world’s wealth, on a percentage basis, is not sustainable; (3) our educational system (K-12) is woefully inadequate in comparison to that of most Western nations; (4) our position of world dominance is not as secure as most Americans think it is (i.e., I think most Americans can’t imagine that we could possibly slip from the ranks of clear number one anytime in the forseeable future).  I think we need to start beefing our educational system up now ... and I am not talking about no child left behind, or things like that, but making available to the best and brightest (regardless of whether their parents can afford to send them to great private schools) a quality education that will help to produce more great entrepreneurs and thinkers.

But, these are things that happen over time.  The type of things that rarely get considered in the immediacy of an election.  I like John Edwards, but I think his stance on trade policy is shortsighted.

Perhaps we could slow the tide with protectionist policies, but I worry about other negative effects on our economy that protectionism can have.  What frustrates me, is that none of the candidates and neither party are discussing what we should be doing to prepare for the coming global economy.  I am not economist and no soothsayer, but certain things seem obvious to me (1) no matter what, manufacturing style jobs are going to increasingly be performed in China, India and other “rising” nations with cheap labor; (2) America’s share of the world’s wealth, on a percentage basis, is not sustainable; (3) our educational system (K-12) is woefully inadequate in comparison to that of most Western nations; (4) our position of world dominance is not as secure as most Americans think it is (i.e., I think most Americans can’t imagine that we could possibly slip from the ranks of clear number one anytime in the forseeable future).  I think we need to start beefing our educational system up now ... and I am not talking about no child left behind, or things like that, but making available to the best and brightest (regardless of whether their parents can afford to send them to great private schools) a quality education that will help to produce more great entrepreneurs and thinkers.

But, these are things that happen over time.  The type of things that rarely get considered in the immediacy of an election.  I like John Edwards, but I think his stance on trade policy is shortsighted.

1. Rick is playing in the Grublog Poker Classic on the 22d.  Look for a report from him (as well as the other participants on their own blogs).  Good luck to everyone, but especially to Rick (who will need it more than most).

2. I am probably going to play in a home game or two in Pakistan, and if I can find a computer you can look for my first international grovel.

3.  A shoutout to Liz at Suited Trash strictly to get credit for new content.  The Grovel was not listed as having new content on the 17th upon her return from her sojourn in AC even though there were new posts on the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th including one that specifically referenced her blog.

4.  Ferarri and Coach are playing in a $250 buy-in tournament with a spot in the WSOP as the top prize.  I have asked both to send me reports about the tournament (mise-en-scene, bad beats, strong plays, final results) and I’ll report on the NYC WSOP satellite through the eyes of a couple of participants.

5.  Finally, one last reminder to people who come here for just the poker, please read the rest of the blog also.  I’m sure that Rick is going to post something personal and insightful any day now. It is his blog, after all.

Play tight, play strong.

This was my rational for predicting an Edwards win way back before Iowa, but it looked like Kerry’s momentum was going to keep Edwards from having time to have the two man race with Kerry he needed.  Frankly, it still looks that way, but primaries can shift quickly and there is a chance that Edwards can pull of a stunner on Super Tuesday largely just on the argument that he is more electable.

Either way, this is great for the Democratic party.  Both candidates are being, so far, positive regarding each other and they will now get a lot more coverage—to attack Bush—these next two weeks than if Kerry had won big in Wisconsin.  If Kerry triumphs on Super Tuesday it just makes him that much stronger.  If Edwards pulls out a shocker he could ride that momentum straight to the general election.  The only way this is bad is if (1) the candidates go negative or (2) the race becomes so tight that a clear winner does not emerge before the convention (though this could be a good thing, it is simply hard to predict how that would play out).

This was my rational for predicting an Edwards win way back before Iowa, but it looked like Kerry’s momentum was going to keep Edwards from having time to have the two man race with Kerry he needed.  Frankly, it still looks that way, but primaries can shift quickly and there is a chance that Edwards can pull of a stunner on Super Tuesday largely just on the argument that he is more electable.

Either way, this is great for the Democratic party.  Both candidates are being, so far, positive regarding each other and they will now get a lot more coverage—to attack Bush—these next two weeks than if Kerry had won big in Wisconsin.  If Kerry triumphs on Super Tuesday it just makes him that much stronger.  If Edwards pulls out a shocker he could ride that momentum straight to the general election.  The only way this is bad is if (1) the candidates go negative or (2) the race becomes so tight that a clear winner does not emerge before the convention (though this could be a good thing, it is simply hard to predict how that would play out).

Last night continued my run of good fortune at Omaha/8 SNG’s with a 2d place finish.  I also joined a $25 NL ring game and after I rocky start I finished the session up another $20.  Not much to report except that its nice to have people bet into you when you are holding the nuts.  A monkey could have won with those hands, and some may say that a monkey did.

I sat down at a PL table again with the $20 I won last night and burned through it in under 20 minutes.  I came down with a severe case of Second Best Hand and the Felt Burn that results.  When a third king fell on the river and a pair of aces in my hand I got check raised by a player holding the case king.  He called my bet after the two king flop, so I should have seen that coming.  Pretty sure that the pot odds required that I call the final couple of bucks, though. 

I don’t remember the next hand I lost, except to say that I knew the player from last night and he is a money drain.  Still, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a hand.  I didn’t even notice that the river created a straight possibility and I bet into it with just trip aces (and the second best low to boot). Needless to say, the straight and the better low were sitting in my opponents’ hands.

The final hand was a depressing suckout.  I started with only $2.20 of my original $20.  Holding k♠2♠44, I called the .25 blind with four other limpers.  The flop was 7♠-3-4♠, giving me trips and a K flush draw.  Again, the river created the wheel and my trip 4s didn’t hold up.  UTG checks, the player to his left bets .75 one player calls and I go all-in with my trips.  The bettor and the caller both call my raise.  The turn is an 8, which is nice because now I have added a mediocre low possibility (24/378).  But the river is a 2, which doesn’t improve my trips, doesn’t improve my low and improved the original bettor - who called me with A♣T♥7♥5♥ - from a pair of 7s with an A kicker and a low of A3457 (a better low than me, but certainly not a great low to CALL with)the wheel. 

I guess the good news is that I never had to show my cards, so even though I ended up getting rivered, my opponents in the game may wrongly conclude that I bet with nothing and I may get paid off by the players at the table when my strong hands at the flop survive the river.  The other good news is that I am accurately putting my opponents on their hands and doing most of my betting when I have the best of the hand; the correlated bad news is that I am not laying down good hands at the river when I know that they aren’t the best hands anymore because a voice in my head whispers “call ... call ... call” and I obey.  I have to stop listening to that voice.

Real time blogging: While writing this I had another decent tournament.  3d place in a 5+.50 NL Hold ‘em SNG.  I had made it back from an early bad beat to make the final three, and had played the final three well enough to draw essentially even with the other two players.  All was going fairly well, and I’m not sure I should have played the hand any differently than I did.

I raised and called a big preflop reraise with JJ.  I called all-in when the flop was 773. (Hard to tell if this was a mistake.  The player was pretty tight, but was playing a lot of nonsense.  I wouldn’t have been surprised by any small pair.) Alas, my opponent was holding QQ.  Neither of us improved with the turn or the river and I busted out.  With the exception of the last hand, I was very happy with my play.  Mostly because I ignored the voice.

Poker blogs

Just a quick note to add the addition to the blogroll of HDouble’s The Cards Speak and the updating of the link for Felicia Lee.

Also, I wanted to point to Love and Casino War, a blog with an awkward name but some excellent and interesting poker content.  He recently posted a good analysis of the expected values of starting hands played at the high-volume Party Poker site.  The data contains some surprises that aren’t, on second thought, all that surprising.

This trade was years in the making, the result of a mindset among the owners that the cost of players is far too high.  Somehow the Rodriguez contract, by virtue of being the biggest, became the symbol of everything that is wrong with baseball salaries.  This always seemed strange to me.  He was the highest paid player because he was the best, most consistent player year in and year out not named Barry Bonds, with the added value of not being in his late 30’s.  Rangers owner Tom Hicks then managed to make everyone believe that the ARod contract is what kept the Rangers mired in last place. (Well, not everyone, as this pissing contest between me and The Fat Guy will attest.) The ARod contract was never the Rangers’ problem and trading it away actually solves nothing.  It does, however, add ammunition to the argument that baseball needs to revamp its financial structure and increase revenue sharing.  Essentially, it is part of an attempt to have the league force the Yankees to cough up more money.

I don’t mean for this rant to sound like a conspiracy theory, because I don’t think that there is an actual conspiracy.  On the other hand, the non-Steinbrenner owners are essentially of a common mind: the Yankees are evil and must be stopped. Their fears aren’t completely unfounded.  Because the Yankees play in a colossal media market, the team has scads of extra cash - and they spend it in abundance.  On the other hand, the payroll difference between the Yankees and teams like the Rangers, Dodgers, Orioles and Mets isn’t so vast.  All those teams have money to burn but no wins to show for it because they spend their money stupidly; the Yankees ROI is pretty impressive by comparison.  Not wanting to look inward, these teams instead see New York as the problem.

And so back to the not-conspiracy.  How do you “prove” without contradiction the Yankees-are-evil argument?  Send the most expensive player in the league to New York.  Of course it doesn’t really come out that way.  The Rangers assumed so much of ARod’s contract that he is only the third highest paid player in New York. (Yes, I understand the significance of that.) And a substantial part of his contract is paid for by Aaron Boone’s bad luck and by the “retirement” of Drew Henson.  How could the Yankees not make this trade? 

On the other hand, the Rangers aren’t getting nearly enough back. Alfonso Soriano is a great young player.  He will make less than $6MM in 2004, which is an astounding bargain for a player that good.  Of course he never walks, and that free-swinging style sure seemed to catch up with him in the playoffs. (Small sample size, of course, but he looked really bad.) Still, he sure isn’t as good as Rodriguez.  I don’t know who the player to be named later is going to be, but I don’t think the Yankees have anyone (that they would actually trade) good enough to fill the gap.  Since the Rangers aren’t getting back fair value in talent (and Soriano is going to keep getting more expensive), there has to be another reason.  There are reasons, but they aren’t good ones.

The first reason is payroll flexibility.  We may have to wait a couple of years to check this, but here is the prediction: the Rangers will squander (or merely pocket) the savings from dealing ARod and the team will not significantly improve. The second reason is CYA.  Hicks needed a scapegoat for the Rangers failure and he decided to make it the ARod contract.  This move should buy him a little time to turn the franchise around. Or to think of another excuse why he hasn’t.  It also has the virtue of making Hicks a sympathetic character.  A guy who got in too deep, and couldn’t escape his one mistake ...  The third reason is to use the trade as a demonstration of the need for change in baseball.

The trade makes the Yankees a bonus scapegoat.  The team that can buy everything bought the crown jewel of the Rangers also. Don’t buy this line of bull.  Before comparing the Rangers to the Yankees, remember the success of the Twins, Marlins and A’s - all operating on shoestring budgets. 

I understand the problems of small market teams.  While I am sort of a Yankee fan, I live and die with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Mostly die. The Pirates wish that they had the Rangers’ problems.  ARod wasn’t the problem in Texas and neither were the Yankees.  But after this stupid deal, the Yankees and ARod will be a significant problem to the Rangers for the forseeable future. 

This just in: The Dodgers got on the clue train before the Rangers did. The Dodgers are about to join the Yankees and Red Sox as rich teams who know what to do with the money at their disposal.  The Dodgers just hired Paul DePodesta away from the A’s. DePodesta and Billy Beane in Oakland were like Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway.  The National League had better hope that Beane and DePodesta are worth far less apart than they are together. Don’t count on it; expect a World Series appearance in LA by 2006.

First of all, Brother of Ugarte tells me that my last Grovel was too long, so this abbreviated Grovel should satisfy his short attention span.  Second, it has been quite a while since I was saved by the river.  I haven’t even rivered a flush when the odds called for me to try and do so.  Understandably, despite my SNG breakthrough earlier this week, it is getting me all twitchy.

Last night I played in two SNGs and crapped out early in both of them.  The second is not worth discussing except to give this advice: (1) At 2:30AM, when you have already found yourself falling asleep in the middle of SportsCenter you do not have to play one more game; (2) if you ignore (1), and sit down to play a SNG at 2:30AM do not choose a LIMIT tournament, as it requires an endurance that you no longer posess; (3) if you further choose to ignore (2), write “Omaha = 2 from your hand and 3 from the table” on a post-it and stick it to your monitor as a reminder so that you don’t jam the pot and go all-in at 3:30AM when you don’t actually have the nut straight. That’s all the advice I have to give, and I will now return to bitching about the losses that were not my fault.  (Well, I guess it is my fault if I’m wrong, but I don’t want the answer to that question for a while.)

Back to SNG #1 from last night.  I hadn’t played particularly well to that point.  I was sitting with a moderate stack when I was dealt the beloved AA in late positon.  The small stack limped in behind me and I limped also to keep the blinds in for the flop.  The SB folded anyway, so three players saw the flop: 2-5-9.  The BB made a small bet, the limper called and I called - still building the pot.  The turn was a K and there were no flush possibilities.  The BB bet, the limper raised all-in, I reraised to put myself all-in in an attempt to keep it heads up (she had shown such garbage in prior showdowns that I was confident in my aces), but the BB called also.  I was nervous until I saw their hands.  BB showed 94o, which is pretty bad.  The limper showed 93o, which is even worse.  I could have accepted losing to a player who went all-in with, say, A9, but how does 93 call in the first place?  And how does 94 play with any confidence that it isn’t going to get outkicked?  Needless to say, I went completely batshit in my apartment when the river was the only 9 left in the deck and I was bounced in 6th.  I really should have remained calm. It is quite possible that I am going to have to lose weight if I want to keep playing poker because I don’t think my heart can take this. Anyway, I needed to leave something in my rage-tank for what happened tonight.

I sat down in a .10/.25 NL ring game with $20. I had been playing moderately well, stealing blinds and winning a few small hands, but ultimately was sitting down a couple of bucks after two tough laydowns after betting when a player I respected came over the top.  After about an hour I was dealt 6♠6♥ in the BB and I checked with four limpers joining the party.  The flop was 6♦-2♦-8♠ and I again I made the minimum bet to get some money in the pot without scaring everyone out and to check for flush draws (which I figured would announce themselves with medium raises) and I got two callers. The turn was 2♠, giving me sixes full (no more flush worries either).  The small blind bet in front of me; I assumed that he had trip deuces. I raised, he reraised all-in and I called.  He had exactly what I thought: 2♣3♠.  So you could color me furious when the case 2 fell on the river and I lost $19 on a full house that I had made on the turn.

To recap: on two consecutive nights I put my opponents on exactly the hand that they were holding.  On both situations I got my opponents to commit their stacks when I was holding the best hand and they had very few outs.  And in both cases (a four-outer and a f’n one-outer) I was rivered.

And they didn’t even drop a “sorry” into the chat.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go play one last SNG before bed. 

(EDIT at 3:09am.  I finished in 2d.  Maybe PL Omaha/8 is my game. No more Cranky Ugarte, I promise.)

Here’s how it went down:

Game started at: 16:40:45
02/14/04
Game ID: 106082 1/2 Table Five 1/2 (Hold’em)
Seat 4 is the button
Seat 4: bananahead (67.75).
Seat 5: Pokertorsken (88.75).
Seat 6: RickBlaine (26).
Seat 8: Lamby (84).
Player Pokertorsken has small blind (0.50)
Player RickBlaine has big blind (1)
Player Pokertorsken received card: [10h]
Player Pokertorsken received card: [7s]
Player RickBlaine received card: [2c]
Player RickBlaine received card: [7d]
Player Lamby received card: [Ad]
Player Lamby received card: [5s]
Player bananahead received card: [8d]
Player bananahead received card: [5d]
Player Lamby folds
Player bananahead raises (2)
Player Pokertorsken folds
Player RickBlaine calls (1)
*** FLOP ***: [Kd 6h Ac]
Player RickBlaine bets (1)
Player bananahead raises (2)
Player RickBlaine raises (2)
Player bananahead folds
------ Summary ------
Pot: 9.25. Rake: 0.25
Board: [Kd 6h Ac]
Player bananahead does not show cards. Bets: 4. Collects: 0 Loses: 4
Player Pokertorsken does not show cards. Bets: 0.50. Collects: 0 Loses: 0.50
*Player RickBlaine shows: High Card Ace [2c 7d]. Bets: 5. Collects: 9.25 Wins: 4.25
Player Lamby does not show cards. Bets: 0. Collects: 0 Wins: 0
Game ended at: 16:41:23 02/14/04

And here’s the chat:
#106082:RickBlaine wins ($9.25) High Card Ace
RickBlaine:THE HAMMER!!!!

Pauly would be proud.

UPDATE:

Game started at: 16:04:19 02/15/04
Game ID: 110310 1/2 Table Two 1/2 (Hold’em)
Seat 6 is the button
Seat 2: Amazing (68.50).
Seat 6: RickBlaine (33).
Player RickBlaine has small blind (0.50)
Player Amazing has big blind (1)
Player Amazing received card: [3d]
Player Amazing received card: [10h]
Player RickBlaine received card: [2h]
Player RickBlaine received card: [7s]
Player RickBlaine calls (0.50)
Player Amazing checks
*** FLOP ***: [4c Jc As]
Player Amazing checks
Player RickBlaine bets (1)
Player Amazing folds
------ Summary ------
Pot: 3. Rake: 0
Board: [4c Jc As]
Player Amazing does not show cards. Bets: 1. Collects: 0 Loses: 1
*Player RickBlaine shows: High Card Ace [2h 7s]. Bets: 2. Collects: 3 Wins: 1
Game ended at: 16:04:40 02/15/04

And the chat:

#110310:RickBlaine wins ($3) High Card Ace
RickBlaine:THE HAMMER!!!

2/15/2004 4:31:32 PM Game started at: 16:31:32 02/15/04
Game ID: 110445 1/2 Table Two 1/2 (Hold’em)
Seat 6 is the button
Seat 2: Amazing (52.25).
Seat 6: RickBlaine (41.25).
Seat 10: DoYou (108.25).
Player DoYou has small blind (0.50)
Player Amazing has big blind (1)
Player DoYou received card: [2h]
Player DoYou received card: [Qh]
Player Amazing received card: [2s]
Player Amazing received card: [Qs]
Player RickBlaine received card: [7h]
Player RickBlaine received card: [2c]
Player RickBlaine calls (1)
Player DoYou calls (0.50)
Player Amazing checks
*** FLOP ***: [8s Kc Jc]
Player DoYou checks
Player Amazing checks
Player RickBlaine bets (1)
Player DoYou folds
Player Amazing folds
------ Summary ------
Pot: 4. Rake: 0
Board: [8s Kc Jc]
Player Amazing does not show cards. Bets: 1. Collects: 0 Loses: 1
*Player RickBlaine shows: High Card King [7h 2c]. Bets: 2. Collects: 4 Wins: 2
Player DoYou does not show cards. Bets: 1. Collects: 0 Loses: 1
Game ended at: 16:31:55 02/15/04

And the chat:

#110445:RickBlaine wins ($4) High Card King
RickBlaine:THE HAMMER!!! 

The night didn’t start particularly well.  I entered a $1 tournament at Bugsy’s Club that acts as the first round in their qualifying tournament for WSOP seats.  There were 147 players; top 5 go to round 2 and top 20 seats pay out (though “pay out” may be a bit strong—11th-20th pay ~$1.25).  It started well.  Tight play, aggressive situational raises, the sort of thing that you have to do early in tournaments (or so I think).  I won a few small pots when I got people to lay down their hands and I avoided showdowns.  Looking over the hand history, I played very tight the whole way through.  I essentially treaded water for a while and then one stupid play…

Holding A♠ 3♠ with 10,200 I called one baby raise from the table junkmeister to see the flop with 4 other callers.  The flop came 6♠-6-3. I didn’t think that there was an overpair because I didn’t believe the only raiser.  tiretrack, holding a 3:1 chip advantage over me bet out UTG. missnewyork raised all-in from the next position for 2,700.  I had watched missnewyork slowly blow her chips on bad bluff after bad bluff so I called with my two pair, as did tiretrack.  The turn was 4♣, killing my flush draw. tiretrack bet 5,675 (an odd amount, if I do say so).  What is frustrating is not that in retrospect it should have been clear that he had a 6.  What is frustrating is that AT THE TIME I felt like he had a 6—but I still raised him all-in.  He, of course, called and turned over A6o. Which I’m sure shocked missnewyork, who probably thought her 56o was the nuts. 

I was about to tell you the river card, and how it didn’t help me, but I just realized something: I was drawing dead from the turn.  A 3 would have given me 33366, but tiretrack and missnewyork would have chopped the main pot with 66633.  Hey kids!  You don’t want to realize stuff like this the next day when blogging! So pay attention!

Ahem. (By the way, the river was a J♠; too little, too late for my flush and useless to missnewyork.  Hasta la vista, Ugarte, 106th out of 147.) (Parenthetical aside: If you play on pokerstars, don’t look for Ugarte.  I signed up at Bugsy’s before I had this blog so I play under my actual name.)

I then moseyed over to pokerstars because despite a great display and a great affiliated freeplay area at pokerpages, the cash rooms are pretty desolate at Bugsy’s and the SNGs take forever to fill.

I honestly don’t remember anything about the first SNG I played last night.  It was a 5+.50 limit hold’em, I played like crap and busted out 17th out of 18.  The second SNG (NL hold’em) was another performance that was less than memorable.  I only remember the hand I lost on, though it is all you need to know.  I called the blinds with A♥J♥ from an early position, and a player who had been tighter than a nun to that point raised about 2BB from middle position.  I was one of two callers.  The board was A-T-x rainbow.  If I had put her on a high pair, it would have made sense to call her big raise.  But for some reason, I was sensing AK - and I raised her all in anyway.  She called, showed me her AK and knocked me out in a glorious 9th out of 9.

I decided that was enough for the night.  I had blown $12 in SNGs and hadn’t finished in the top 2/3 in any of the games.  It was no consolation, though it should have been, that while waiting for the second tournament I turned $10 into $17.50 in a .10/.25 NL ring game.  At around 11 I decided that I had to play one more SNG and decided to play whatever 5+.50 was closest to starting. PL Omaha/8?  PL Omaha/8 it is! 

I actually like Omaha.  I know Omaha about as well as I know hold’em (which is to say, so-so), but that is an advantage in games with novices.  While there are a lot of people at least at my level in hold’em, most people don’t have a frickin’ clue in Omaha and even my meager ability can be a very big advantage.  At least that is how it seems in home games, so I was willing to test it out for real last night.  The tourney started well.  I won a few pots early, but I only asked for my last 50 hands, so when we pick up the action, I had just given up my chip lead after losing a medium sized pot to br1stolboy in which my computer crashed in the middle of the hand (eating up most of my time bank, but doing no other damage).  This would be a recurring theme, as pokerstars crashed on me at least half a dozen times - once doing me a favor and folding a great low draw that never materialized.  This particular crash led to this adorable burst of petulance by yours truly:
> Ugarte’s said, “jesus this is getting annoying”
> Ugarte’s said, “not the hand - nh”
> br1stolboy said, “ty 8-))"

And left the standings at:
> Seat 3: holacee (1040 in chips)(Get it? ‘Ace in the hole’. Cute.)
> Seat 4: Ugarte’s (3075 in chips) (Some other muthafucka took ‘Ugarte’ first!)
> Seat 5: zegg (4125 in chips)
> Seat 6: deversm (1490 in chips)
> Seat 8: br1stolboy (3770 in chips)

I knew at this point that I had to outlast holacee and deversm.  But neither of them was the next to go out.  After a multiway hand in which I ended up betting 2400 to win 170 (I chopped the low and took the high in a side pot) I got br1stolboy heads up and knocked the table down to four.

Against my better judgment, I played A♣k♣9♣7♥.  I don’t like to play when I have three of a suit because it messes up the flush odds, but nobody was raising pre-flop and it was a cheap enough call.  The flop was decent—2♣-J♦-Q♥. I had a draw for Broadway, there was no flush on the board and if I could see the turn cheaply, I would.  br1stolboy bet 250 and I called.  The turn was T♥; mixed news.  I had my straight, but there was now a ♥ flush draw on the board.  When br1stol bet 750, I doubled it to 1500, expecting him to fold.  Nope.  He called and got a turn of 9♠.  Shit!  Now, instead of a flush draw, there was a damn full house possibility.  Fortunately, br1stolboy didn’t have much of a stack left.  He went all-in for 780, and pot-committed as I was, I called.  He turned over K-Q-7-2, giving him a not-quite-good-enough straight to the K and I took the chip lead back.  One spot away from the money, and now I could coast to 3d at least:

> Seat 3: holacee (1040 in chips)
> Seat 4: Ugarte’s (6075 in chips)
> Seat 5: zegg (4325 in chips) is sitting out
> Seat 6: deversm (2060 in chips)

That was a bit lucky, though.  I made two strong plays in the game, and the first came with three players left.  zegg had me doubled up and holacee was barely hanging on.  I was dealt KQ5♣2♣ in the big blind; I checked when zegg called.  The flop was A♥-3♥-7♠, giving me the 2d best low with a draw to the wheel.  zegg bet 600, I raised it to 1200 (semi-secure in my low and hoping that he would lay down his hand) and he called.  The turn was 7♦.  When zegg bet only 300 I knew he was on the flush draw - I flat called so that I could get away from the hand if the river was a ♥. 8♣.  I had nothing for the high but the 7s on the board, but I knew he missed his flush.  So I crossed my fingers, bet 900 and pumped my fist when zegg threw his cards away.  We were roughly even, and stayed that way until zegg knocked out holacee a few hands later and took a modest lead.

When the end came, it came fast.  Slightly behind, holding 5-5-4-2, I caught a straight draw on the flop (3-6-J) that turned into a full house when the turn and river were 6-6.  I bet the river hard and zegg laid it down to give the lead back to me.  On the next hand, I caught the nut low and a straight.  Fortunately zegg got the nut low also, so he bet the hell out of the hand and I took half of what he threw in, and I had him more than doubled up.  The next hand was a dream come true.

I was dealt A♣Q♣8♥2♠, I called and zegg checked.  The flop was 5♣-4♥-3♣, giving me the wheel and the nut flush draw.  He bet 800, I flat called. The turn was an A♥, which worried me a little.  Now I ran the risk of losing to a higher straight and chopping the low.  Still, I was comfortable.  He bet 1200 and I smooth called again. The river was Q♠, zegg bet another 1200, I raised him all in for his last 425 and he called with A-Q-6-3.  My wheel beat his top two pair and it beat his A3456.  Tournament over and I won my first cash SNG.

After struggling for a long time (with plenty of struggle still to come) it was nice to get this in my inbox:

PokerStars Tournament #984178, Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50
9 players
Total Prize Pool: $45.00
Tournament started - 2004/02/12 - 23:18:57 (ET)

Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

The game went on despite my laundry issues and it seems like a quite different game than the one I played last week.  When Coach is on his game, he can be good to watch, and he was obviously on his game.  He took down $193, and he did it on a short schedule.  He showed up late, and always leaves by 11, so the table must have been drastically tilted in his direction for the short time he was there.  In giving me an abbreviated game report he gave an unsolicited shout-out to fellow blogger Pauly, calling him “deceptively good.” Coach is also engaging in some effective trash talking.  He called Ferarri out, essentially telling Ferarri (mostly in jest, but all good jokes hurt a little) that he wins only when Coach isn’t around.  And even though Ferarri finished up $140, he won that money before Coach arrived and after Coach left.  Hmmm.

Rick took a big hit when a game of 5stud-"replace"-hi/lo was called when he was in the loo.  He returned to the table and received an inadequate summary explanation of the game and it cost him.  Here is the good summary explanation: The game is dealt like 5 card stud (1 down, four up).  After the round of betting after 5th street, the players are given three options: stand, exchange an up card for $1 or exchange the hole card for $2, followed by another round of betting (and perhaps a declare; I didn’t ask). 

After the five cards were dealt, Rick had (2)-3-4-5-3, Helmut had (x)-Q-Q-x-x and the dealer was sitting on an obvious high.  Here is how bad the summary explanation was: Rick tossed in $2 asked for another card.  When Om reached to take away his hole card, Rick had the rule reexplained because he thought he was just buying a 6th card.  But it was explained poorly because he didn’t realize he could exchange a 3 for a buck.  So he didn’t.  Helmut, of course, exchanged a Q, and ended up with Rick’s low.  A minor scandal followed when the dealer, realizing that he had sort of screwed Rick with a half-assed explanation, opted not to bet his obvious high hand.  Helmut, on the other hand, bet his low.  Of course, though it is probably true that Helmut shouldn’t have bet ... Rick really shouldn’t have raised.  He obviously thought Helmut was bluffing, but when you miss your hand you can’t complain when the bluff fails.  (Congrats to Ms. Rick for winning a Bugsy’s Club freeroll.  Someone has to put bread on the table.)

Pauly’s got the final tally over at Tao, so I won’t repeat it here.

Money Vanishing Into The Ether
As for my own game, it has seriously cratered.  My discipline is weak, so I play bad starting hands.  Even though I have a very good sense of the strength of my hand, it isn’t helping.  It is making me weak, when I feel that I am being bluffed at and I am seeing bluffers in the shadows when they are waving their nuts right in my face.  Needless to say, it is costing me.  I’ve put $175 into online sites ($100 at pokerstars and $75 at bugsy’s club) and have lost about 70 of it.  Most crushing is that I am losing at the .10/.20 tables.  I have to get my head straight, I have to get back to reading, and I have to start respecting the players that are beating me in the showdowns. 

Last night (when I started writing this entry) I sat down at a .50/1 table playing cycles of hold ‘em and Omaha/8.  Nothing interesting happened during the first round of hold ‘em, except that I played tight.  Which meant that I didn’t play at all.  Omaha was a different story.  I kept getting the cards. A♠ 2♠ A♣ 9♣.  Now that’s a starting hand!  I flopped the nut low, but the flush didn’t develop.  Still, I took down a nice pot.  Two hands later I got bullets, one of the bullets had a suited friend and a three to boot.  Took the low again, and split another nice pot.  In the space of 20 minutes I went up $14.  I was feeling great.  Over the next hour and a half I lost that $14 twice.  The final indignity came when I decided to sign off.  I didn’t move quickly enough and my hand was dealt.  The Hammer.  How could I not play The Hammer?  Easy, stupid.  Just lay down the cards.  But I didn’t.  Instead, I bluffed all the way to the river.  I checked (yes, I was in the early position), expecting him to bet so I could throw away my cards.  But no, he checked back to me forcing me to flash The Hammer in shame. Quite the curl up and die moment.  So I signed off without saying goodbye.

As I write this, I am sitting in 2d place in a 5+.50 Limit Hold ‘Em SNG.  Or I would be if pokerstars didn’t keep crashing.  Excuse me while I go sign back on.

I signed back on. By the time I returned I was in 4th place in chips and there were only 7 players left.  Only one hand of note.  Sitting in the BB I was dealt 42o.  Everyone folded to the button (chismar, the chip leader at the time) who called.  I checked, and the flop was KK8.  I bet, chismar called.  The turn was a T and the board was a rainbow.  I checked, chismar checked.  The river was an 8 and I bet again.  chismar laid down his cards and the mystery of the BB took a modest pot.

Eventually we got down to four, and there was no real chip leader.  The blinds were at 250/500 and all four of us had between 2700 and 4100.  And we swapped rank for a while without anyone making a move.  The four players left were:

Ugarte (fearless reporter)
Gencyn (tight player; eventual winner)
waddy3 (solid, but plays too many hands)
chismar (calling station, sees every flop, luckiest sonuvabitch alive)

I took the chip lead for a little while on one of two typical chismar hands.  Dealt 9To in the BB, I checked; chismar called from the SB.  The flop was 2-3-T, so I bet and chismar called.  The turn was a 9, I bet, chismar called again.  The river was a beautiful T, I bet, chismar thought and then called my full house.  It should have crippled him, but that bastard survived.

A few hands later I was dealt AJo in the BB (yes, I did most of my playing late in the tourney out of the blinds).  The flop was a rainbow 2-3-9.  chismar, sitting on a very short stack, bet and I called, figuring my A was enough, but 2 overcards made the bet worthwhile anyway.  The turn was a random card (T? 7?), chismar went all in with his last 200 and I called.  He turned over 64o!!!.  See if you can guess the river.  A fucking 6, and that bastard beats me.  This after rivering waddy3 at least three times. 

The rest of the tourney was uneventful, but I lost another decent pot to that guy when he actually played a hand well (caught top pair on the flop and let me chase my overcards to no avail), and I ended up busting out in 4th.  It gave me some pleasure to see that chismar finished in 3d.  His luck had to run out eventually.

On to the universe of bloggers ...
Chris Halverson’s eponymous blog is a very good read, and I welcome him to Rick’s blogroll.  I thank him again for the cheesecake (even though I didn’t have the patience to sit through the introductions and have never watched the game).  Also happy to see that he is hanging out at Rick’s Cafe and not just loitering in the poker material.  There is a whole multi-topic blog here at Rick’s and I commend it all to you.

Suited Trash is Liz’s new roundup of the blog world.  Or it would be if she ever came back to the NYC from AC.  No complaints, though, because she gave us the bullet point treatment, so the Grovel is a recommended blog.  Well, OK. One teeny-tiny, really minor, extra petty complaint. Liz links to the Grovel, but calls the link “Rick Blaine.” Please either link to the Cafe (and call the link “Rick’s Cafe Americain") or link directly to the poker content (and title the link “Ugarte’s Poker Grovel").  (See?  Really minor and petty.)

In all seriousness, thanks for the link, Liz.  When the posts start rolling I will be a regular visitor for the roundup. She also says on her blog that she is looking for home games in NYC.  Liz, as an NYC denizen, you are obviously welcome to join me and Pauly at Ferarri’s game.

HDouble at The Cards Speak added the Grovel to his blogroll without even telling me and I just spotted my name there.  He’s got a hell of a blog.  Very good stuff without getting all braggy, so I am pleased to add him to the blogroll. (Hint, hint.)

Last, but certainly not least, an oversight has been corrected and Felicia Lee has been added to the blogroll.  Alas, Felicia Lee’s blog is really a Yahoo! group, which requires a (free) Yahoo account and a signup.  While the group is interactive, count me among the many who think she should move to a conventional blog.  The link above is a website with links to each of her reports, but they are in a strange order, which makes it a bit of a nuisance to find the latest entry.  Am I really giving design tips?  I have to go to sleep.

That’s it for now as, once again, I have to go cry.