pwnd

"The defense department regrets to inform you that your sons are dead because they were stupid." - Goose

Hit and run post here. Of course, any time I say that, this ends up becoming some long, drawn out blathering on bad beats and stuff.

Actually, since getting back into the game, I've have an absolutely incredible, wholly unsustainable run, It's nice to have a huge start, especially when you only start out with a 50BB bankroll. In the period of 3 days I find myself up over 120BB. I switched from Party to Eurobet to take advantage of a bonus and before tonight was up damn near 150BB.

I mentioned to HDouble that I was on an incredible run, which was I'm sure the kiss of death. Never, NEVER say you're on a winning streak to ANYONE. It will end it.

And so it was. I sat down at a pair of tables (remember that bullet point a few days ago about NOT multi-tabling? yeah, me too.) and immediately began getting my ass handed to me. I should have known it was time to go when the evening started like this:


Party Poker 0.5/1 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is SB with Ah, As.
4 folds, MP2 calls, 3 folds, Hero raises, BB 3-bets, MP2 calls, Hero caps, BB calls, MP2 calls.

Flop: (12 SB) 9d, 3s, 2c (3 players)
Hero bets, BB calls, MP2 calls.

Turn: (7.50 BB) Td (3 players)
Hero bets, BB calls, MP2 folds.

River: (9.50 BB) Js (2 players)
Hero bets, BB raises, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 13.50 BB

Results:

Hero has Ah As (one pair, aces).
BB has Kc Qd (straight, king high).
Outcome: BB wins 13.50 BB.

Genius. Of course, play like this is what juiced the bankroll so nicely in the last 48 hours. Anyway, for some bizarre reason I'm sure has to do with the full moon, this crap was happening with annoying regularity today. It didn't help that I completely ignored my own fooking advice and was sitting there two tabling with a beer buzz on and 5 hours of sleep under my belt. I certainly wasn't on my 'A' game, I admit, but there's just no defense against a lucky bonehead.

Okay, I think to myself that this table just has it out for me and it's time to pick up and find somewhere else to roost. So, that's what I do. I go into tight-information gathering mode for a while, glean some useful trends off the players, and this happens:

Party Poker 0.5/1 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with Ah, 7h.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, 2 folds, Hero calls, CO calls, 1 fold, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop: (6 SB) 9h, 2h, Ac (6 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG+1 checks, UTG+2 bets, Hero raises, CO 3-bets, SB folds, BB folds, UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 calls, Hero calls.

Turn: (7.50 BB) 8h (3 players)
UTG+2 bets, Hero raises, CO calls, UTG+2 calls.

River: (13.50 BB) Ad (3 players)
UTG+2 bets, Hero calls, CO raises, UTG+2 3-bets, Hero calls, CO caps, UTG+2 calls, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 25.50 BB

Results:
UTG+2 has 7c Kc (one pair, aces).
Hero has Ah 7h (flush, ace high).
CO has 2s As (full house, aces full of twos).
Outcome: CO wins 25.50 BB.

Stunning. Kids, Party has only gotten sweeter as time has gone on. Never the less, this one had my seeing through a red mist for a few hands. As you can see by my river betting, I just fooking knew I got shafted by that river ace. The first flush I actually complete in almost 1000 hands, and that shit happens. Thank you, drive through. Couple of hands later I try to convert an open ended straight draw on the flop and miss, bringing me down to about 6BB left on the table, which promptly goes away when my pocket pair doesn't convert and I push it anyway. Hey, if someone can hit their runner runner 3 outer, I should be able to pick up a 2 outer miracle, right?

Or something. Okay, it was a tilt move. Bad me.

Anyway, even with that train wreck of an evening session I still ended up up about 11BB for the day before the bonus clearing, so I can't complain too loudly. It'd just be nice if things wouldn't go back to suckout city and bad beat county like it did a few months ago.

I've been thinking that I should put a "stop loss" on my play, more for tilt control then bankroll protection, but I'm not sure exactly what I need to make it work. I've been tossing around the idea that if I go 15BB down from my buyin (considering a 25BB buyin typical at Party) it's time to pack up and end the session. I absolutely have to get out of the mindset of going to another table to try to get it back. Mentally I'm shaken at this point and I'll start playing defensive poker, which I'm sure is what kicked my ass last time out. Anyway, this is what looks like happened tonight when things started breaking bad. I failed to keep up the attack. Well, actually, part of the reason that happened was I was getting craptacular cards, but I could have done better on the boldness front.

Taking a quick glance at my numbers too, it looks like I might be having a bit of trouble with my river play. For February, over 820 or so hands, my aggression factor post flop is 2.20, but my river aggression factor 1.3. Well, okay, looking at it, it doesn't look that bad.

Okay. Mas sleepy and failing to make sense at this point. More later!

Serious

Okay, I've been poking around for the last few days catching up on my blog reading, and I ran across LordGeznikor's blog, which I hadn't read in several months.

Now, LG is a pretty regular poster, and it seems he's been running aweful bad the last few months. From his writing I can see some patterns that I, unfortunately, have seen before.

His last post was January 31st. Nothing since then. I'm worried that LG might be in trouble. If anyone knows what's going on, email me. If anyone knows him personally, help him. He needs intervention.

Seriously. Get in his face. I've been in the position to help before, but I didn't understand the signs back then. I understand them now. Someone please find LG.

Learning To Fly

Okay, no witty quote this time around... I'm just too lazy at this point to look one up. As some sort of final insult here in the land of Chedder and ice fishing shantys, we got some gawdaweful amount of snow. Not the usual arctic circle kind of blowy white shit either, but these little flakes of lead that really by all rights should be rain but somehow fails to melt until June. Went outside to find over six inches of this crap sitting on my driveway. It wasn't fun at all.

June in Wisconsin

Anyway, as a reward for my busting my ass digging out my driveway (which no doubt by now is buried in another 6 inches) I sat down for a quick hit and run session of poker. Long story short, I came out almost 15BB to the good after a little over an hour of play. Just to review, PokerTracker plus Gametime+ = rockin' in the free world. At least so far. With only a 50BB bankroll to start though, it's good that my initial swing is up rapidly.

Made some more progress on the whole Rakeback thing. I'm the definition of small time, but like I said previously, any return is better then no return. All I have to figure out is how to get signed up on something like Eurobet without the benefit of a computer that doesn't already have Partypoker installed on it. Or something. In spite of a busy day at work I have managed to fish out some information about how to go about doing this, though I do hope I don't have to melt down my cookies in IE to get 'er done, or I'm going to be spending the better part my the next year hunting down passwords I've long since forgotten.

We shall see...

Reload

Ooh, that plan is well known. You'll have to do better than that. - Merlin

Well, now I've gone and done it. The ICP has waded once more into the turbulent and unpredictable waters of the micro-limits. I've been sort of circling the pool for some time, the desire to get back to the grind and give it another shot growing steadily, but the opportunity finally came and away I go. Another try at turning $50 into a fortune.

I'm initially back in Party, but I have some thinking that I might want to try to go somewhere where I can get a decent rakeback. I'm not exactly a high dollar or, at this point, high volume player, but I figure any return is better then no return. I'm currently hunting around for a decent rakeback offer (making good progress) and trying to figure out if Eurobet and Party can co-exist on the same computer (zero research accomplished). Any advice greatly appreciated. K, thanks.

Anyway, had a decent if short return. Up about 6BB in an hour or so of play. I've been messing around with Gametime+ and it seems like it's definately a keeper. I hear there's some issues with multi-tabling and Gametime+, but I only played one table this afternoon, so I can neither confirm nor deny that. I'm not in a big hurry to multi-table anyway unless I get into some rakeback deal where a higher volume of hands is beneficial.

Still want to get my hands on that Ed Miller book. Perhaps once the move is over with I can pick up a copy.

Speaking of the move, looks like Friday the 25th is the day. Everything's set, so all I have to do is, well, do it. Should go reletively smoothly. First day of work is the 2nd of March.

I'll probably throw a few more cards around tonight when I get home. Can't pass up on the Saturday night fish fry at Party! Here's to hoping I have what it takes to make another run with this!

Long Lost Friends

In catching up on my blog reading, I read that HDub has changed jobs! So, congrats to you, H! Though I did notice that I'm not on his list of blogs anymore, so I imagine he stopped reading this blog. Oh well. Can't say I blame him. In the realm of poker blogs, this one pretty thoroughly sucks, especially lately.

The Golden Parachute

I find your lack of faith disturbing - Darth Vader

It's been a very hard time waiting, but I am happy to report that I will be moving back to the Chicago area to take a position with the aforementioned dispatch center. The call came Friday afternoon and I've found myself suddenly extremely busy trying to get everything in order. It looks like everything is lined up and all I have left to do is finish up here, pack up the rest of my things and head on down the road...

I want to thank those of you who put in a good word for me in the comments of the last post. Nice to see that, even though I've been a dissapointment in terms of any actual, you know, content that I still have people checking in on the old ICP every once in a while. I'm really hoping that I can restart with the business of pontificating about my poker antics. Alas, as of now, the only thing I can report is that playing the play money tables sucks.

Apparently the Oneida casino in Green Bay has a weekly no limit tourney on Wednesday nights. $60 buy in with a $5 dealer tip option that will win you T300 more in chips, with apparently unlimited rebuys for $20 for the first two rounds. At least, this is how it was explained to me. I don't know how many chips you start with for your $60. I don't think I'll make it this Wednesday but I might try for next week, depending on how funding looks. Logic dictates that I take the $65 and throw it in Party, but I think the tourney might be more fun in the sort term... Someone talk some sense into me!

Speaking of Party, I'd really like to get started on it again, but from my play on the play money tables, I think I need to sit down and do some review reading before I get serious about it. The trouble is, I traded my Lee Jones book to a friend and he gave me Theory of Poker, but I think at this point my game has eroded to the point where getting into a heady tome like ToP might be counterproductive. I really would like to get my grubby hands on the new Ed Miller's Small Stakes Hold'em book. I'm not a 2+2 deciple by any stretch, but I've heard good things by and large about it, and I guess it's "basic" enough, if you will, to help me get my game back on track and advanced enough to allow me to grow my game into the upper small limits at least. Some things I KNOW I have to adjust.

• Ease up on the multi-tabling
• If I get bored and feel the urge to wander off to the Internet or something, quit.
• Read, study, discuss
• Resist the urge to play single table tournements in an attempt to "turn it around"

This is just the beginning.... again.

Oh, and Decker, what were you thinking of helping with?

Introspection

"I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life... to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. " - Henry David Thereau

It's been quite a while since I read my fellow bloggers' offerings, if I could still be considered a "fellow blogger". I haven't played poker in a good long while, other then the occasional home game against truely terrible players, and I've contributed not at all to the discussion, but I hold out hope that I'm still embraced by the community.

This post won't be much about poker, except to mention that once all of the things going on in my life sort themselves out I'd very much like to make another run at it.

So, what's it all about? Those two and a half people still reading my mental blatherings know I work for the airline industry. The endgame on this whole thing might play out in the next couple of weeks, as United has said they're going to make their decision soon... Which could mean anything, really. The staff in Chicago have reported, and the management here has confirmed, that there is a "Transition Team" from United wandering around the Chicago operation. One could logically surmise that if there exists a transition team there's likely something to transition. Management has been remarkably silent about this, except to confirm that which they cannot hide. That, and the mass exodus has begun. We're seeing about 4 or 5 openings a day being posted, and it's not like we're growing, so again, deductive reasoning suggests that these positions are being vacated, not created.

I have decided to leave this industry I love. It's a difficult decision, but it's become clear that this isn't the industry I grew up around. It's now getting to the point where your typical airline employee makes less then a McDonalds manager. The people you see on the ramp throwing bags and servicing the airplanes? They'd make more money at WalMart. Even pilots are getting shafted. Given the amount of training and money it costs to become qualified to be an airplne pilot, it should amount to more then $17,000 a year to start. It's getting worse too. The only thing keeping the industry from becoming dangerous is the fact that pilots have pride in their work in spite of what amounts to indentured servitude by management.

Anyway, I've been going through the process for the better part of two months to work at a police and fire dispatch center in suburban Chicago. Why the change?

Previous to this airline gig, I was in the I.T. industry for around 7 years, most of that time as a contractor. I spent an average of 6 months at any one job. Some of the time the contract ended, some of the time I was offered a substantial raise to move. Anyway, I did a lot of moving around. Once the industry collapsed, the market went from employer saturated to employee saturated. A job I used to do now requires a Master's degree, 20 years of experience and a Master MCSE certification, and pays 2/3 what I used to make. The point being, I've spent my entire professional career looking over my shoulder, wondering when the pink slip will come. My move into the airline industry was supposed to solve all of that, but alas, after 9/11 this industry too is in the process of imploding. I'm 32, I have a wife and I'd like to start a family. I can do none of that if I have to worry about whether my next check is my last check. I need stability. Public service can give me that.

The waiting is killing me, though. I'm in the final stage of this whole deal, having done enough tests to qualify me for crypto clearance, I have made the cut. Now the final step of the process, the background check. It's taking forever. Part of it is my fault. I filled out my application with the same information I filled out my previous applications with. I figured I passed a police and airline background check, both equally thorough, with this information, so in it goes... Well, a lot changes in two years. I got at least 3 phone numbers wrong due to changes, closing, moving and one was plain stupidity on my part. I called up the person doing the background check and corrected all of this information, but it's supremely embarassing to have sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth on this application, only it's not correct information... Duh. So now, in my typical style, I'm worried sick about it. Did I get this right, what are they going to think about me getting the information wrong, where are they in the process...

Clearly I'm being irrational about this, but when I think about why, it's seems I'm counting on this job more then I initially thought. The truth is, there is a very real prospect that this job I have now is at the worst, gone in 4 months, and at the very best, a dead end career. I will never see the inside of a major airline dispatch center, and I'll never make more then $55,000 a year here, and that will be 15 years from now. I'm not greedy, but I would like to give my kids a decent shot at higher education and still have a little left for me and my wife when we retire, considering Social Security will be relegated to the history books by then.

In short, I just want a phone call.

And a spare $50 so I can make another run at the Party tables... See? This site isn't COMPLETELY devoid of poker content! Oh, and a copy of Ed Miller's book. That'd be nice.

But for now, I just wait. and wait.