Monday Night

It’s finally March, which puts a little spring in my step. It was 70 degrees today. I celebrated the occasion with a run up Big Bluestem and a Samuel Adams Blackberry Witbier which I am presently finishing off. Bustout plan is a game of Puerto Rico, but I have little faith in its fruition because of communication issues with my friends. The poor communicative skills of my friends has really been putting me on tilt lately. It’s 2009, people. There is no excuse for not having a fresh, charged, working phone on you at all times. My attitude now to those who engage in this sort of wretched communication is just to cut them off completely and never respond to them until they bring it to my attention, at which point I will say “so now you know what it’s like.”

Table is:

1 Me
2 Unknown jersey-wearing gipsy1974
3 OUEmoKid who I believe is Jason Potter. I recently watched him final table this event before (IMO) blowing up with K3 offsuit
4 Claw1980 who I have heard of and has an ironman logo
5 Unknown named hceb
6 Ansky451 who I have played some cash with and who busted me out of EPT Barcelona in 2007
7 Another unknown jersey-wearer named daCav04
8 Unknown Masterhp
9 A gnome named goodvibe I have heard of but know nothing about.

10-20

Raise button to 60 with Ks7s and gipsy reraises to 200 from the small blind. I call mostly because I don’t want people thinking I will fold to a reraise, which in fact I will very generously. Flop comes Ts6h2s he bets ¾ pot and I call. Turn 7 check check river 2 check check I beat his AK and he goes off in the chatbox about idiots and $3 satellite winners.

Dacav raises 2nd position goodvibe calls to my right and I call with KQo. OUEmoKid joins the party from the button and we take it four ways. The Qd9s3d flop is checked to me and I win it with a fairly beefy bet.

Gipsy limps UTG, another guy limps and ansky makes it 100 to play. Dacav calls on the button and I fold KQo in the BB, definitely a reasonable spot for a squeeze play.

15-30

Cav raises to 90 EP I call with 74 of hearts and so does OUEmoKid. Flop comes a heavenly 6d5h3d and cav times-out (which is a check). I check knowing OU will usually bet this flop when checked to and he doesn’t disappoint, betting 210. Now this hand I really want input on cause as we know flopping the stone cold nuts is not a common occurrence and you have to get max value when it actually happens. I decide to flatcall mainly because it seems like everyone and their mom has been pushing my flatcalls around over the last month or so, running through every green light. The turn comes 8h and I check again. OU throws out a hefty bet of 510 so I’m pretty sure he’s got something. I decide to make it 1500 – again, wondering what is the best play. He tanks it and then jams in with 66, I call of course and make a flush on the river. But the 3h also pairs the board and my stack is decimated down to 790.

Now I am gonna play very few hands make sure that when I put chips into the pot I have a hand to go all the way.

Fold 66 UTG.

20-40

The shit-talking jersey to my left goes broke on this pathetic hand:
Dealt to GnightMoon [4c 3d]
GnightMoon folds
gipsy1974 raises to 120
OUEmoKid folds
Claw1980 folds
hceb folds
Ansky451 folds
daCav04 folds
Masterhp folds
goodvibe has 15 seconds left to act
goodvibe raises to 385
gipsy1974 has 15 seconds left to act
gipsy1974 calls 265

*** FLOP *** [Jd Tc Td]
goodvibe has 15 seconds left to act
goodvibe bets 550
gipsy1974 calls 550

*** TURN *** [Jd Tc Td] [Qd]
goodvibe has 15 seconds left to act
goodvibe checks
gipsy1974 has 15 seconds left to act
gipsy1974 bets 920
goodvibe has 15 seconds left to act
goodvibe has requested TIME
goodvibe raises to 5,445, and is all in
gipsy1974 calls 1,120, and is all in
goodvibe shows [Ks Kd]
gipsy1974 shows [Qc Ah]
Uncalled bet of 3,405 returned to goodvibe

*** RIVER *** [Jd Tc Td Qd] [Th]

goodvibe shows a full house, Tens full of Kings
gipsy1974 shows a full house, Tens full of Queens
goodvibe wins the pot (5,970) with a full house, Tens full of Kings
gipsy1974 stands up

25-50

Ansky makes it 150 from the hijack, dacav calls and I elect to fold A8o on a 680 stack. Flop AA6.

On a 610 stack fold K8o button followed by 95s cutoff followed by 54s hijack.

Funky hand comes up here – I had it totally crossed up:

Dealt to GnightMoon [6c 4d]
Masterhp folds
goodvibe folds
GnightMoon folds
Ryan Daut folds
OUEmoKid has 15 seconds left to act
OUEmoKid raises to 150
Claw1980 folds
hceb folds
Ansky451 calls 125
daCav04 raises to 450
OUEmoKid has 15 seconds left to act
OUEmoKid calls 300
Ansky451 calls 300

*** FLOP *** [7s 9d Th]
Ansky451 checks
daCav04 has 15 seconds left to act
daCav04 bets 666
OUEmoKid has 15 seconds left to act
OUEmoKid calls 666
Ansky451 has 15 seconds left to act
Ansky451 folds

*** TURN *** [7s 9d Th] [Js]
daCav04 checks
OUEmoKid checks

*** RIVER *** [7s 9d Th Js] [3c]
daCav04 checks
OUEmoKid has 15 seconds left to act
OUEmoKid bets 1,100
daCav04 calls 1,100

*** SHOW DOWN ***
OUEmoKid shows [As Ac] a pair of Aces
daCav04 shows [7h 9h] two pair, Nines and Sevens

daCav04 wins the pot (4,882) with two pair, Nines and Sevens

Fold JTs EP god I hate folding JTs.

Claw raises early, folds to me in BB where I dump A9s.

30-60

Couple notes while I fold my 37th straight hand:

Notre Dame lost tonight to Villanova, which basically ends any lingering hope they had of making the NCAA tournament. Notre Dame has lots of offensive talent, but they are not tough and they do not play defense. I learned a lot from watching the Notre Dame ship sink this season. You look at their roster and there is no way they should miss the tournament – or so we think. It is so easy to see offensive talent but defensively it is opaque. The thing about Notre Dame, I think, is their players are not as good as they seem. Luke Harangody is the only D-1 player who ranks in the top ten in points and rebounds, but his defense is weak. Also, he gets a lot of those rebounds because his teammates are small. He would not be grabbing that many rebounds if he played on a team with bigger, more athletic players. Kyle McAlarney is a real sniper from long distance, but that is all he brings to the table. Villanova handled the Irish easily. Although star Scotty Reynolds had a great game, I thought the difference between the two teams was Villanova’s defense. Unknowns who play good defense are just as valuable as the McAlarneys of the world.

Moby’s “Play” is really a classic album. It holds up. It’s follow-up “18” is also really good – it once put six songs on the top 15.

So after folding 41 straight hands I finally jam A6o on the button for 450 and Ryan Daut gets tens in the small blind and busts me.