thecincykid

thecincykid

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(no subject)	[Nov. 8th, 2009\|07:59 am]
When I watch Taylor Swift sing, I like to close my eyes and pretend she's singing just to me. That's normal, right? Am reviewing hand histories from the final table of the Main Event. A lot of plays that really left me scratching my head. I understand feeling the need to be both deceptive and aggressive, yet it seems like there were fundamental mistakes in terms of math and game theory made in the name of being aggressive. Still the two biggest practicioners of weirdo poker made it to the heads-up, so what do I know. Here is an unintended consequence of health care reform. I had decided to stop playing poker during the recession in order to provide economic relief to all my opponents. However, if our government is so keen on the whole wealth redistribution thing, then I'm sure they won't mind if I start doing a little wealth redistribution of my own. My outlook on the matter has basis in sound economic thought. Poker is great for the economy because it moves money from the hands of dumb people to the hands of smart people. For every dollar in our economy, there is greater probability of it being utilized in an economically desirable fashion, if its allocation is made by a smart person (re: me) versus dumb people (re: about 87% of all other people).
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The life and times of Delonte West	[Sep. 29th, 2009\|08:43 pm]
Indians suck. Browns REALLY suck. Trying to get psyched about the Cavaliers dream season about to come our way. Then, there's Delonte West. Could you stop being wacked out, please? It's kind of a buzz kill. Who am I kidding? I love it. Especially this gem. One day Jim Rome asked Delonte to describe his idea of a romantic evening and this ensued.... “So, I pick her up in my white convertible. From there, I’d have the music pumping on the radio. The Jim Jones pumping, you know, ‘Summer in Miami’ song pumping. Got to keep a little gangsta, you can’t be too soft. You can’t be in there playing some guy that’s crying, talking about don’t leave me and love me baby, wah wah and all that. So Jim Jones pumping and then from there, wind blowing through the hair, boom, we get straight to the point — we eat afterwards because I don’t want to kiss no onions. I don’t want to kiss you tasting like onions and steak and mushrooms and everything.” “Yeah, we’re going to my yacht. We’ll pull up at the docks and got a guy waiting for us, open our door up and we walk down a lit-up dock and onto the yacht, where we have dinner set up on the boat and we just cruise out on the water. Sit down and have some dinner, some shrimps and steaks, keep it nice and breezy. Pop some bottles, some Moet Rose. The red Moet, we ain’t popping no Kristal, it tastes like urination. We ain’t popping no Kris, that’s $500 a bottle. It ain’t that serious. It ain’t going to get you drunk. Make sure you put that in there. We ain’t doing a $500 bottle, we’re doing a $99 wine and dine.” “OK, so from there, we’re doing a midnight skinny-dipping jump. Alright? From there, hopefully she’s got money because I hope Jaws gets her, boom, make sure she got me in the will, bank, I’m good. Oh well, shark got her! Jaws got her. Nah, we ain’t going there.” “One more thing: When we’re on the yacht eating, we’re going to have some Popeyes chicken. That’s for dinner. It’s to let her know, put a mental image on her mind, first and foremost, if you ain’t from the hood, you don’t like Popeyes chicken. Everyone there loves Popeyes chicken and the biscuits — phew. But that’s just getting it on her mind, saying, you know, ‘Yeah, I can wine and dine you, but I’m a little rough around the edges and I’m keeping it real with you. I can be romantic, but this is real, we’re going to eat some chicken tonight. Chicken and biscuits.”
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C'mon now we're marching to the sea.......	[Aug. 16th, 2009\|06:53 pm]
...$424.80 Great day today. Rest of the week was poopy. I'm enjoying learning the new games. Still getting rocked, though. Not even a baby cash. From now on I'll stick to buy-ins of $3 or less untill I actually get better. My goober-ness at the other games is counteracting my general awesomeness. Also, bubbled out in a $20 NHLE with one rebuy one add-on. The good point is that I neither re-bought nor did the add-on and was still a factor. The bubble was over $100. Five times the buy-in is sweet. Can't believe the money people were throwing at this one. Saw some silly rebuys. And almost all add-ons are incorrect in these type of tourneys, yet 75% of the players thake the option. Shhh....I won't tell. These actually set up nicely for me as my strength is nearly always cashing (especially if a 20% reward structure). Can play these to squeeze into the money. On a separate note, in larger field tournaments I'm probably too tight around the bubble to secure something. Still looking for that first big takedown in the several thousand player fields. Think I had one top-50 finish? That's way too low considering I'm in the money about two-thirds of the time. Overheard at Chinese buffet today. Father (who is, like, 40) is telling kids about Woodstock. Starts listing bands/artists that performed. CCR, Janis Joplin, CSN, Hendrix, and ...Heart.....wait, what? That doesn't sound right. On reflection he must have been confusing Heart w/ Jefferson Airplane. That had to be it because JA was not included on his list. Similar, I guess, but not really. And, of course, no one called him on it. Why does that annoy me so much? Don't know. I think if I were in this conversation I could have convinced them Bon Jovi performed at Woodstock, maybe even Stryper. Anyway, I ate extra helpings of mushrooms as my own personal Woodstock tribute. Damn longhairs.
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(no subject)	[Aug. 9th, 2009\|02:39 pm]
Moving in the right direction.... ...up to $410.34 Having lots of success in the limit tournaments. Won one that was 6-max. Harder to grind in these ones. Need to be involved in more hands. Though when playing against quality opponents, if you get really tight for a stretch you can earn the credibility you need to push light from position. If I 've set up my image correctly, then I should be able to raise and continuation bet and get called only by a real hand. If so, you shut it down. All is contingent on earning the tight table image. Also, am having success playing against those who button raise, by limp re-raising pre-flop or post-flop. This is another byproduct of a tight image. An audacious act like a check-raise from a tight player looks like the nuts to your opponent. Finally, I'm free carding my opponents by raising with my flopped flush draw almost every time. So rarely do I get re-raised. I can see all the cards for no additional bets. Working like a charm. Got up early and played a mixed hold 'em tourney. 2nd in that one. 4-1 chip disadvantage when I got to the heads-up. Grinded for about an hour, but couldn't even it up. Interesting situation. Got verrry conservative in the NL, aggressive in the limit rounds. Opponent was getting frustrated. Started pushing pre-flop on over 50% of the hands when on the button. Ugh. Couldn't find anything to showdown with. Oh well, I like my strategy here. I encouraged exactly the action I wanted. Now where's my AK! What isn't working: I'm giving a litle back in cash games. To willing to show down with some semi-strong hands. Still no breakthroughs in tournament HORSE, Omaha, etc. Getting better. Still in the neighborhood of the bubble a lot. Probably two tight down the stretch. Still grumpy about last night's limit tournament. 600+ players. Able to grab the chip lead with 15 or so left. Only managed a ninth place finish. Horrible. Got caught capping it with AK pre-flop with ace-king. There are worse plays, however I thought my opponent was raising to pressure the low stack who had decided to make a stand with a medium pair. If AK comes in I'm golden, however when it didn't I move myself from third-ish to ninth-ish in a heartbeat. I did see the compression in the relative chip stacks. Still once you've got six bets in there, hard not to call one-or two more with AK. Couldn't catch a show down hand. Blinded out. Undisciplined. Very disgusted with my suckniess. Me:poker::current US NOC's:espionage. Rule number #1: Don't get caught. Rule number #2: Seriously, don't get caught!! Hang with'em.
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(no subject)	[Jul. 26th, 2009\|04:22 pm]
$237.12.... 180 player sit&go's - good. anything with the word turbo attached - bad 13th in the FL tournament last night. Locked in with the other low stack where we capped it pre-flop. Me AK, the other guy A-10. The flop. 10,10,10. WTF? The turn was a king just to be rude. Seriously I've played enough to know that there is some bizarre stuff going down. I'm seeing an average of two two-outers hit on the river ever hour. Maybe it's an illusion because you will tend to see more hands on the whole. The Action Flops Theory.....I tend to not be a believer. There is so much money to be made without shenannigans, why risk it all via silly machinations. That didn't seem to stop Lehman Brothers, though. Somewhere an enterprising soul will crunch the numbers to see what there is to see.
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(no subject)	[Jul. 12th, 2009\|04:34 pm]
Off to a good start!! After a number of nickel and dime cashes during the week I hit a big one in a $4 limit tourney. Several hundred players and I finished third, good for about $250. Took 8 hours. Ugh. Nothing like busting out at 4:30am and then being too wired to sleep. Love the limit game. It suits my strengths more than any other. I can start playing as high as $20 buy-ins now and stay below the 10% stake threshhold. It's ironic that I went above the 10% level by playing a $4 when my balance was only $30-odd. I guess it worked out ok. May take some shots as satelliteing into the Sunday millions. Will move up to .50/$1 limit as the cash game of choice. Anyway..... Balance: $281.74
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(no subject)	[Jul. 9th, 2009\|01:19 pm]
Well now I've gone and done it. Today I commit my first dollar to online poker. $25 to PokerStars. Yeah, a big spender here. Not so much interested in getting rich(er?) as much as the journey. How far and how high can I take that stake without going busto? The Chris Ferguson experiment is my main inspiration. Going to have to stick to the $1 and $2 buy-ins to start. I may play a little cash, but probably only limit to start. Can probably play .05/.10 safely, sitting with no more than $3 at a time. :>) Should be a fun exercise! I think it's good to document this thing. I can watch and see if I get out of line in terms of risking too great a percentage of the total stake at any point. I'll have to discipline myself in terms of playing buy-ins that are no greater than 10% of my stake. Shouldn't be a problem. If' I'm feeling a little froggy, then it's off to the casinos. Let's do this thing!
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(no subject)	[Jun. 28th, 2009\|06:57 pm]
Another bubble-out. I've got more bubbles than Lawrence Welk, yo. No biggie. Considering last week it feels great to lose to non-cheaters. Not much to work with. It is stunning that I can still find a way to the bubble. Only made one baby mistake when I tried to buy it with ace-queen from position after not connecting on the flop. Cost myself about a quarter of my stack when I got check-raised all in. Got away, however, the check behind is probably a better play. The flop was 5-7-8 with two of a suit as I recall. I did pre-flop raise, though ace-eight could be in there. Also that's a draw heavy flop. The better time to try to buy it is after the turn if a brick comes in. My opponent showed me an eight. So fold was correct. The HW is here! I'm checking that out on Friday. They've added tourneys on Saturday which is interesting. Also they have a $260 buy-in on Sunday morning with a $15,000 guarantee. The breakeven is 57. I think they would have trouble hitting the breakeven, from my experience. Free $'s? Still 300 bones with the entry fee is a chunk. If the structure is appropriate, then it's worth a look. I don't think 5000 starting chips with 20 minute levels is worth it. If it were 8K or 1/2 hour levels, then I'm in. I should be around the money bubble every time out. Then, there is a $7000 guarantee on Wed. night on a $125 buy-in. Breakeven is 56. There's no way they hit that on a weeknight. They have been lucky to get 40 there. So the casino could be adding about $2000 to the kitty. Maybe interest will be up because of the newness. My guess is that this is a introductory sweetner to get folks in the door. May go over this week to check that one out. Tournaments: 27 Wins: .75 Money finishes: 5, 18.5% Top 30%: 15. 55.6% Profit: -$341
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Ooof!	[Jun. 21st, 2009\|07:34 pm]
What a frustrating week. Finished 17th in my flight of 80 (not 60). Needed to make the top 10. A little disappointing but it didn't leave much of a mark. I had decided before hand that I wasn't going to get too tight around the bubble. Instead I play to qualify with a healthy stack so I would be on track for a high finish in the finals. That meant getting it all in there pre-flop with ace-king versus what turned out to be jacks. I had six big blinds left at the time. Hard to criticize that play though I suppose I could have tried to just qualify at all costs. I had an average chip count left at that point. Played two tournaments today. I was third in the morning one for a net cash of $146. The afternoon one was an extreme test of patience. Bubbled out in fourth place. Very frustrating. A lot of weirdness went down. It was mainly a result of one player who was playing her first tournament. She was completely green. She didn't understand the order of play, nor the blind structure, nor the betting structure. Everyone has a first time yet even after a couple of hours she was still playing out of position and was confused about chip denominations, etc. It's hard to get too upset about. It was mostly just sad. She was really struggling and was getting embarassed about making mistakes and holding up the game. Some of these folks that materialize out of the hills of Kentucky-iana are frightening. You really do wonder how they function in society on a day-to-day basis. The scary part was that she kept making hands. She was playing every hand and calling it down to the river. Not usually a recipe for success. She caught a lucky river three or four times (once again me) to stay alive. It tends to not bother me much. I strongly encourage others to play at a negative expectation level against me. My problem is getting too much credibility. Others, however, got tilted big time. Suffice to say the dealers really earned their money today. But finally a big time mistake was made by a dealer that I am inclined to blame on newbie. We are down to four players and I push all-in after making middle pair on the flop. The other player folds. Newbie player has action but the dealer forgets that she is in and turns over the flop to begin the next hand. The flop cards are into the muck. Whoops. The floor person is called. I am the only one who can remember the flop was 10-7-6 rainbow. Since it can't be verified by anyone else the decision is made to go to the camera. Lovely. The tape shows 10-7-6 and the flop is recreated. Newbie promptly folds. A dealer error to be sure, however, newbie had so effed with the rhythm of the game I'm not surprised something like that happened. She also had the habit of picking of her cards and holding them in a fashion that made them difficult to see. Oh well, still couldn't make a hand down the stretch. Pushed with king-nine on the button. Big blind calls with ace-two. Ugh. Probably shouldn't have been called in that situation. I was crippled when that one didn't come in. Not much I could do differently. I was on the outside looking in all afternoon. Still almost pulled it off. ;>) I was happy to be free of the place. I think I aged about five years in that tournament. Played very well. It's difficult to quantify but I know that I continue to improve. On days like this I am reminded that while I am more than likely the best player at the table, there is no doubt that I am the best person at the table. Unfortunately I'm not counting money tonight. I am counting my blessings, though. One blessing in particular. In my life I do not have to suffer fools - much. Thank goodness because I totally suck at it. Tournaments: 26 Wins: .75 Money finishes: 5, 19.2% Top 30%: 53.8% Profit: -$241
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Hooray!	[Jun. 14th, 2009\|08:03 pm]
Thank God for the return of deep stack tournaments. On Sunday there is now a tourney with 8000 in chips to start and 20 minute levels. Was able to chop first and second place for a net of $444. A good tune-up for the big free roll on Wednesday. That one will have 10K in chips to start. 40 of 240 to be paid. So disappointed with last year's debacle. I'm a year wiser, so we'll see how it goes. My new obsession is playing on PokerStars.net. It's been fun learning the different types of games. Doing some multi-tabling, too. Played four tournaments simultaneously and finished in the top 5% of all of them. One NLHE, one Omaha HL 8-or-better, one 8-game, and one HORSE. Not exactly world class competition. I was very focused. When it was over there was an empty package of Nutter Butter cookies in front of me. I think a dog took them. That's what I'm going with. Tournaments: 23 Wins: .75 Money finishes: 4, 17.4% Top 30%: 47.8% Profit: -$287
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(no subject)	[May. 17th, 2009\|08:48 am]
Tournaments: 22 Wins: .25 Money finishes: 3, 13.6% Top 30%: 10, 45.5% Profit: -$731 Cash: Sessions: 17 Winning sessions: 12 Profit $1652 Hours: 87
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(no subject)

[May. 10th, 2009|06:49 pm]

Tournaments blow. Two swings and misses this week. 7th of 50-odd in one. Bubblicious. In the other I am dealt kings in level one. Raise to 200. A limper raises me to 500. Yikes. Called the raise. The flop is queen-high. Bet of 500. I go to 1200. The other guy pushes. I fold and show the kings. He shows the aces. Still cost me about a quarter of my stack early. Hung out for a bit until level four. Blinds 75-150. Six limpers. i call small blind with jack-seven. The flop is all diamonds and jack high. It get checks around to the button who bets 600. I push here with 2400 uncommitted. One of the limpers literally trips over himself trying to call. Uh-oh. The button folds. The caller had about 3200 so he's basically puting his hopes on the line. So naturally I expect a flopped flush. It turned out to be just the ace of diamonds and no pair. So he was calling 2400 to win 3600. That's fine. A little gamble-y.

Snuck $277 out of a cash game in six hours. La-de-da.

Tournaments: 21
Wins: .25
Money finishes: 3, 14.3%
Top 30%: 9, 42.9%
Profit: -$676

Cash:
Sessions: 15
Winning sessions: 11
Profit: $1582
Hours: 78

Boo-hoo for tournament failures. My own fault. Bad game selection. The structures are too tight on these ones but I keep playing them like a dolt. I think I could do better if I only counted the winners. That's the real secret of success, isn't it?

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(no subject)	[Apr. 19th, 2009\|09:31 am]
Tournaments: 19 Wins: .25 Money finishes: 3, 15.9% Top 30%: 8, 42.1% Profit: - $496 Cash: Sessions: 14 Winning sessions: 10 Profit: $1305 Hours: 72 More tournament woes. 11th of 50-odd players. The blind structure is killing me in these ones. It's very turbo-y. It increases the variance which ends up being punter-friendly. It's good for business but bad for meee! Cash was rough. I'm always amazed by the number of folks who sit down with the table max and proceed to play poorly vs. someone like me who sits with only $100 and decides to play well. Ran $100 into $300 rather easily. Then I flopped a full house where another guy flopped quads and it was all gone. Whatever. The difference between me and the knuckleheads is that I only lost $100 because I buy-in modestly and actually, you know, win money in the intermediate time. I'm happy that we had a roughly 9% shot at hitting the bad beat jackpot if the case queen comes. I think I was due for a cooler because the Indians had just dropped 22 runs on the Yankees. Anything something that awesome happens you know the other shoe is about to drop.
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Two important questions	[Apr. 16th, 2009\|06:13 pm]
1.) If the Michael Scott Paper Company makes a sale where do they get the paper? 2.) I wonder if John Demjanjuk is on Twitter. I actually would like to know what is going through his head.
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(no subject)	[Apr. 12th, 2009\|08:01 am]
I'd like to start by giving a shout-out to all the marshmallow peeps in my tummy. Mmmm. I decided to recreate the human sacrifice scene from Apocolypto. I lined them all up so that they could see what was going to happen to them. Very dark. Sorry Jesus. Earlier this week I pulled up behind a car with the "1 cross + 3 nails = 4givn" bumper sticker. A nice sentiment. It did make me feel a little self-conscious about my "I'd rather be waterboarding" sticker. Interestingly, we both probably don't get tailgated much. One tournament this week. Bubbled out in seventh. One cash session which resulted in $281 in less that three hours. Tournaments: 18 Wins: .25 Money finishes: 3, 16.7% Top 30%: 7, 38.9% Profit: -$441 Cash Sessions: 13 Winning sessions: 10 Profit: $1405 Hours: 68
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Question	[Apr. 1st, 2009\|07:39 pm]
Why does Violet Affleck(?) have light blond hair? Hmm. I'm going to need some Punnett squares, a copy of Ms. Garner's filmography and something to write with. I'll get to the bottom of this.
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(no subject)

[Mar. 29th, 2009|08:41 am]

No tournaments.

One cash session. Lost $121. Four hours.

Saw something new this week. The guy on my immdiate left kept putting out $20-to $30 bets pre-flop without looking at his cards. So bizarre. Everybody just kept folding until they caught premium hands. The best part is when I played a pot with another guy where I had pocket queens and the flop was nine-high. I bet pot sized and am min-raised. Since I only have about $50 behind and it was $35 to call, I push. There was a heart draw out there. It could be ace-nine. Whatever. My opponent has kings and I lose. A pretty standard hand there. Sometimes you lose. But the guy on my left who was throwing out the blind bets proceeds to offer me an education on how I could I have played that hand better. Really? Unbelievable. I couldn't get upset because it was so comical. It was almost worth to watch him run through over $1000 in a heartbeat. I wish I could have got some of that.

I've seen these types once in a while. It's almost like they are trying to show off by being so cavalier about money. He was drinking, but seemingly not drunk. It was only early afternoon. However, he was sniffing like a mofo and was a little twitchy. Uh-oh. This guy is clearly a felony waiting to happen. Seems like there continues to be an increase in behavioral issues. Maybe it is related to the economy, maybe not. Still it is depressing as hell to have to witness. I need to toughen myself up so that I'm immune to being affected by such folks. I think I will reinvent myself. What I have in mind is a combination of present day-Benjamin Linus, Staff Sergeant Dignam, and Boo Radley.

Cash
Sessions: 12
Winning session: 9
Profit: $1124
Hours: 65

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(no subject)	[Mar. 22nd, 2009\|08:11 am]
Tournaments: 17 Wins: .25 Money finishes: 3, 17.7% Top 30%: 6, 35.3% Profit: -$386 Cash Sessions: 11 Winning sessions: 9 Profit: $1245 Hours: 61
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(no subject)	[Mar. 15th, 2009\|09:17 am]
One cash session this week. Started w/ $100 and lost it all. A fairly aggressive-playing table. Just had to sit back and wait on this one. Moved from $100 to $200 and back a couple of times. Finally I got kings on the button. Six limpers. I raise to $10. One of the limpers raises all-in with $50-some. I figure worse case-scenario a big ace. I go ahead and push because I have action behind. The player behind thinks a long time and calls with what turns out to be ace-jack unsuited. I guess he thought he was getting pot odds. Maybe he thought I was making a button raise with a marginal hand. However, we had been playing five hours and I had made a pre-flop maybe twice. Anyway, the other buy had pocket sixes. The turn was an ace and I lose. He'll probably blow the winnings on scratch off tickets. I wouldn't care so much but this guy was one of those who thinks he is a good player but is actually mediocre. Don't mind losing to good players. Similarly, don't mind losing to bad players. It's losing to the average players who think they are God's gift to poker that bums me out. Oh well, over time the marketplace is pretty efficient in poker. This joker has already lost and the sad thing is that he does't know it. And another thing...this guy was rude to the fishes. He took a big pot from an less experenced player and then showed the bluff to twist the knife. So naturally the embarassed player and his buddy just get up and leave. So silly. I'm not a psychatrist, and I don't play one on TV. What I do know is that that kind of behavior can only come from a place of a deep insecurity. It makes me think that life (also an efficient marketplace) has already taken care of this one. Cash sessions: 10 Winning sessions: 8 Profit: $993 Hours: 58
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(no subject)	[Mar. 8th, 2009\|07:20 am]
More tournament woes. The levels have been slashed to 15 minutes at B____. I understand why they are doing it. With the demise of another poker room in the area they are getting much more action. Hence the need to free up tables quicker to support live action games. Sucks for me, but it's the right move from their perspective. Anyway, the blinds accelerate too quickly for my taste. Probably won't play many tournaments there until something changes. I'll still play my cash game hours and qualify for the big tournament in that way. Cash game was my standard grind-it-out affair. Up $214 in eight hours. Super tight was all that was needed. Then, I limped from position and bought the ones when checked to. Played with two late 50s-ish guys who were commiserating about their 401-k woes. Both are now planning to work into their mid-70s. Ugh. My expert read of the situation told me probably not the best time to volunteer that I was completely out of all long-term holdings in the market in 2001. This time change is going to kick my butt - because I'm 90 years old. Why can't they just always move the clocks back? Tournaments: 15 Wins: .25 Money finishes: 3, 20% Top 30%: 4, 26.7% Profit: -$231 Cash: Sessions: 9 Winning sessions: 8 Profit: $1093 Hours: 53 Online: $58 Lost in a heads-up where I was outchipped 9-1 at the start. Whatever.
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