High On Poker

WARNING: NO POKER CONTENT.

I feel like shit.

About a month or two ago, I had random days where it would feel like someone was pressing upon my adam’s apple or that space in the center of your neck, right above the clavicle. It came and went. I didn’t even pay much attention to it. I just figured that I was getting fat, and my shirt collars were too small.

Two weeks ago, the throat problem became constant. I went to a new doctor, but she sucks. She’s Russian, and I don’t trust her at all. Those two statements aren’t entirely linked, but I can’t help but feel like she prefers my Insurance payments more than treating me. I went in two Fridays ago. My appointment was at 3:15. I saw the doctor at about 4:30. This alone was enough to upset me. Meanwhile, I had done my own research and had reasoned that my sickness was probably a thyroid problem. The symptoms of a thyroid problem (which I exhibited) include the thyroid impinging on my throat, weight gain (nothing substantial), dry skin, loss of hair (insert joke here), and fatigue. I had them all.

Dr. M told me that it could be my thyroid, but she’d have to do a blood test. She couldn’t do one on Friday because I had eaten, so my blood sugar and cholesterol would be off. She wanted me to come back sometime next week. I asked her if the food would effect the thyroid test, and she told me no. To which I replied, “I’m here for my thyroid, so take the test. I can’t take off from work for nothing.” She took the test. At the time, I was in the middle of a horrible cold, so those symptoms seem to muddy the waters. Dr. M provided some random allergy medication and something else. I took them all, and they did jack shit.

I arranged for another appointment for the next Friday after the weekend saw my neck in the same horrible condition. My cold was improving, but my neck was just as bad. I could barely eat (which I love to do) because of nausea, combined with the pain of swallowing. So, I set the appointment for 3:00 on Friday. I got there at 3. I didn’t see her until 4:30. Fucking bullshit. When I saw her, I had one goal in mind: get a referral (required by my insurance) to see an ENT specialist (Ear, Nose & Throat) about my throat. She told me that the thyroid test was fine…but that she was concerned with my blood sugar levels! BITCH, I thought. CHECK YOUR FUCKING RECORDS! I ATE BEFORE IT! I explained it to her, but in more civil terms. She told me that she still wanted me to come back for a blood test. I told her, “First, I solve the neck. Then we can have a physical.” I resigned myself to never going back to that shill. I did, however, get a referral, not to a ENT, but to a GI (gastro-intestinal). It turns out that the new prime suspect is Acid Reflux Disease.

Now, GERD (that’s its technical name) sounds like a bitch disorder. Oh, so your acid enters your esophagus! Just take some antacids. Well, fuck you too! Because it’s fucking breaking me. I have a doctor’s appointment on Thursday. I have heartburn. My back aches. My throat is soar. It burns, and when I lie down, or when I burp or when I cough or when I breath I can feel the acidic taste entering the back of my mouth. And I have to wait until Thursday, just to know if that is what is wrong with me.

Meanwhile, I woke up from last night stressed about the trial I’ve been assisting with. I thought as I awoke, Maybe I should stay up. I can get to the office early and get some stuff done. I looked at the clock. It was 2:30. I then woke up every hour until 6:00. I then woke up every 10 minutes until 6:40. I then woke up every 5 minutes until 6:55. I gave up and started my shower.

I feel like shit. My throat hurts, my back hurts, I’m exhausted and stressed, I can’t eat because of the throat pain and nausea, but I know that not eating is bad for me. I feel broken, and the worst part is, I don’t know how or when I’ll be fixed. That’s probably the scariest thing. I might not even have GERD.

So, I’m bitching. And I’m sorry. But I needed to get this out so I can accept this bullshit. I’m so fucking tired.

I felt the same way last night. Add to it all the late night at the office scrambling to prep for today, and I was in bad shape. My game suffered. My ability to socialize even suffered.

I think I’m done complaining for now. Man, I’m tired. I know this isn’t a sick-bitch blog, and I know that I am probably exposing this shit to my friends and family who read this, and frankly (Ruff and others) excuse me for being such an extroverted bitch when it comes to this shit. But also, thanks for not giving me shit about it later, when I’m reading this and going, what was the big deal! The Dr. told me it was only gas!

I’ve been a bad host. Things at work and my new affliction have made life miserable for me, so I apologize for not sticking around longer to watch the tournament. Hell, I don’t even know who won. But I want to thank everyone who came out and played. I played like a stooge, and went out 52nd out of 57 people. Go me! But I have to go now. I’ll be back to a regular posting schedule soon. Thanks for reading.

Im gonna post in 5 min or less, so excuse typos, crappy grmamer and other problems. To make thi even more interesting, I will not be suiong the backspace key. Here goes:

I did no tplay in the WPBT even t latst night, because of the Sopranos. Sorry guys. I really wanted to play, but I’ve been waiting 2 yrs for the Sopranos and only a couple onf weeks for the WPBT event. I will attend the next one if possible.

I can’t wait for tonitght for teh DADI event. I like shorthanded action. It makes everyhting a lot olooser.

I also cant wait for the start of the 45SNGC (sseee sidebar link under, well, links). It started–ignore that–starts tonite following the DADI event, and I have a feeling, we’ll be seeing more than a few players /challengers starting their first tourneys tonight. If you didn’t join the challenge but still want to play with bloggers following DADI, I’m sure you could join us. Yahoo messenger ID HighOnPokr (neo E).

Iggy has a $30 MTT scheduled for a WSOP seat for bloggers only. I need to email him to get he passeword. I’m looking forward to it.

Sopranos was good. Three deaths (well 2, because you know one of them won’t stick), but good anyway.

I have to go to th ebacnk ignore that bathroom really bad right bnow.

Um, I think that is it. Funny story about court later. Bye.

Thank you all for your kind anniversary/blog birthday words. But since I am so fucking busy, I have to make this brief. Please, for the love of god, play in the DADI event tonight. It’s shorthanded poker. I expect to see you all there. And, suffice it to say, there will be a upcoming story about how I made an ass of myself when entering court for my first trial ever…within one minute of walking through the doors. See you tonight!

Picture it: a law firm in NYC, March 2005. I was a young impressionable girl, just off the boat from Sicily. He was a tall strapping Blog, with long flaxen hair…

Happy Birthday Blog! Or should I say Happy Anniversary! It was one year ago today that I decided to start this humble blog. My reasoning was simple. I stumbled upon Tao of Poker via the Intrepid Card Player when I was seeking a way to get to CardPlayer.com at the office where SurfControl blocked that site. After lurking and reading for a few months, I decided to take a crack at writing, myself. My goal was simple: write about poker when I couldn’t play about poker.

Over the course of the last year (boy that went fast), I went through a wedding, being laid off, finding new work, meeting bloggers, and playing a bucket load of poker. By far, the highlight of the year was marrying beautiful wifey Kim. She even took a moment to leave a comment in the last post. She is my alpha and my omega. So, I’d like to thank her for giving me the time and encouragement to play poker and to write.

The lowlight of the year must have been getting laid off. Fortunately, that had a silver lining and I am now at a higher-paying job in a firm that fits me better.

But lets focus on the blog. I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot here, but I’ve done that post before about the great people, readers and bloggers. So let me focus on some of the technical aspects. At first, I was glad to get 10 readers a day. Hell, for the first week, I didn’t even tell anyone (except for maybe Pauly) that the blog existed. I pride myself on trying to write daily (during the week) and I guess some people started reading and linking up. It helped when I met Pauly in May of last year. After that, readers grew to about 20-30 daily. I felt like a real star. By July, the Limit Challenge and SNG Challenge allowed me to connect with more bloggers. I broke the 100 readers on one day mark in August. I didn’t see that number again until October. I also broke 10,000 total hits in October 2005. The DADI events were invented on a whim, and Trip and I had over 60 players on the first event, actually beating Wil Wheaton’s turnout, but to be fair, Wheaton has his weekly and would probably get a better turn out 9 times out of 10. Still, the feeling of accomplishment is there. In December I hit over 150 readers on one day foir the first time. Not long after in January, I hit 25,000 hits total. Since then, the blog has been going strong. I look forward to other milestones. I don’t mention this for any other reason than to say, my how this has grown. And also, Thank You to all of my readers, to all of the bloggers, and to my family and friends who have supported me.

Oh, and feel free to sign up for VPP, PSO, or my for Rake Back at OnlinePokerRakeBack.com (referral name: HighOnPoker, which you should enter in your registration email to the site). I’ve been using Online Poker Rake Back for Doyle’s Room, and I’m looking forward to my first rake back soon. And, yes, I had to shill. Hey, one year doesn’t come cheap!

Thanks again. Now go sign up for DADI.

I want to make a quick post inspired by a late night conversation with DP from WiredPairs last night.

DP and I were talking about all things poker, and eventually he made a comment akin to this: “If you win a lot of tournaments, it’s because you get lucky a lot.”

Now, DP is a cash game player. He likes to focus on the big games, $2K NL and such. He and I are practically diametrically opposed in our philosophies. Whereas I would like to work my way up to the big stakes by slowly climbing up from the low stakes, DP feels that he is more successful at the high stakes, and therefore he should not waste his bankroll on the lower stakes. I don’t suppose that this has much to do with the eventual topic to be discussed, but it provides a little bit of background on DP.

When DP made the comment regarding tournaments, I immediately felt defensive. Is my MTT SNG success due to me being lucky? I suppose to some extent, luck helps. But then I realized the answer: “When I play SNGs, I do well because I don’t LET luck be a factor.”

That is right, folks. I can control luck and make it negligible in many situations. I won’t say MOST situations. You can play super tight and then push with KK and run into AA, and that’s the breaks. Vice versa, you can push with AA and get called by KK and still lose. You are not going to escape that aspect of the game. But you can minimize luck’s role in tournaments, and, in fact, I consider it probably the #1 reason for my recent SNG/MTT success.

If you are dominating a hand, you may have a 65%-35% advantage over your opponent. But that is not enough. If your opponent folds, suddenly you have a 100% advantage. That is what you want.

As an example, which is illustrative of my recent mentality early in tournaments: You have KK in mid-position. There are a couple of limpers before you. Should you: (a) Limp and try to slowplay, (b) raise modestly and try to narrow the field, or (c) raise heavy. No one in their right mind would do (a), because you don’t want KK against 6 other random hands. Choice (b) seems like an obvious route, so that you can maybe get 2 callers, some decent scratch, and then make some post flop moves. Choice (c), however, is the move of choice if you want to minimize luck. Raise heavy. Make that AJ think twice. Scare away the 99. Yes, you have those hands dominated. BUT if you are playing a long tournament, you are going to be playing a lot of hands. If you are going to win 4 out of 5 times (watch this!) and you are in that situation 5 times in the tournament, you are going to lose statistically at least once! That once might be when you are all-in. You’ll be sitting thier slack jawed, wondering how Ad9d called your preflop raise from 50 to 200 and then hit his flush (or his ace, of a set of 9s, or a 4-card straight), but you have ignored something. You’ve done this already on several occassions, and statistically, you are going to lose. Now, raise it from 50 to 500 and watch him fold. Tada! You’ve eliminated luck.

Okay, so some players will call your bet to 500 with Ad9d. Good! At least they are paying big money, and when they miss, you’ll get a big chunk of change. But you’d rather have them fold and pick up their blinds.

Okay, okay. If the blinds are tiny, like 10/20 with stacks of 1500, those meager blinds might not be enough to make you feel that you got value for your KK. I’ll give you that, cowpoke. You can make a raise from 20 to 200 and hope to get callers (its equivalent in proportion to your 50 to 500 raise). But even in the early stages, taking in the blinds will do a lot to build table image (which matters more in tourneys than in cash games).

The other side of the coin is folding marginal hands. I know it is tempting to play those suited A-rags, and other marginal hands, but don’t. Don’t especially in the early rounds. Simply put, any time you are in a hand, you give someone an opportunity to make you unlucky. As an example, you have 1425, with blinds of 15/30, in late position with KJd and decide to limp after 4 other players limped before you. Now the BB minimum raises, and everyone calls. You decide to call because its a mere 30 into a 300+ pot and you have decent odds. You flop a KJ4. You are in great shape! That is, unless someone else had 44. Or, maybe someone has AK and the next card is an Ace. Or, maybe someone has K4, and the next card is a 4. Or, maybe someone has AJs and runner runner flushes you. Or, maybe someone has TT and turns a ten. See also QT hitting a straight on the turn. Now, if I am in this position, I would bet or raise big, hoping to get an idea of where I am at if it comes to me for relatively cheap. You have to play the cards, and you have to like what you see with top two-pair and try to take it down. But wouldn’t it have been easier just to fold in the first place? The answer is yes. And now you wouldn’t be in a position to let luck screw you.

Final thoughts: This really applies to online tournaments moreso than live tournaments, because live you may pick up tells or know things that allow you to outplay your competitors post-flop. But online, most of those tells are negated. Finally, I don’t know much. This is just a theory and I know that a lot of people might not agree with it, and some other people might think that it is all very obvious. Those people can feel free to leave comments. For the rest of you, consider how you can reduce the opportunities to be unlucky. It will change poker from a game of chance to a game of semi-controlled outcomes. Enjoy!

As you may have read, I played a 45-person SNG warmup last night with an illustrious group of bloggers. I outlasted the others (with nothing short of ballsy luck) and placed barely inside the money, netting 7th place. This is a good omen before the 45-p SNG Challenge starting immediately after the DADI Shorthanded Event. As for the DADI event, we only had 3 people signed up as of last night. I can’t encourage people enough to sign up early. It builds excitement, and, let’s admit it, you are playing anyway. The event is set for this Monday. Feel free to nab the banner (check the DADI link above) or the side banner (see side bar) and pimp the hell out of it. It’s not a High On Poker/TripJax event, but rather a blogging event, and we look forward to playing with friends and foe alike.

On that note, here’s hoping that Iggy can lock down a date and time for the $30 Blogger-Only Satellite to the WSOP. Much kudos to Iggy for planning such an event. I, for one, am willing to go outside of my usual buy-ins to do my part to make a blogger’s mark on the WSOP.

So, after placing in the 45-p SNG (my third place out of four tries recently, and my third out of three tries in turbo games), I started a shorthanded three-table (i.e., 18-player, 6-seats-per-table) SNG on Stars with GCox, Surflexus, and DuggleBogey. The result, I placed 3rd, netting another SNG win. My strategy involved folding every hand for the first 20 minutes, using my toe on the laptop mouse, while I (I hate this word) cuddled with wifey Kim as she fell asleep. Her friend was staying over and sleeping in the living room, and I had been playing poker all night. I love wifey Kim’s ability to oversee my poker…obsession…but I also wanted to spend some time with her before she fell asleep.

After that 20 minutes of folding (I had no good cards anyway), I was full into the SNG and used my usual patience early on, followed by aggression when the blinds are significant, to make my way to chipleader when we were down to 4. Long story short, once we were down to three, it was VERY SLOW GOING. I don’t remember how I lost my lead (by then it was 10K v. 10K v. 6K or so), but eventually I went out. I was just happy to have moneyed in my two SNGs.

Earlier that night, I donked $25 in 1/2 Limit on Doyle’s Room. I must admit, I’m starting to think I should stick with SNGs online. I’ve been steadily loosing (or so it feels) in limit cash games. I don’t trush my NL cash game because of the high variance. But, in the end, I think I’m simply running hot in SNGs and cold in cash games. Live cash games (hopefully) are not a problem. I haven’t played in a while, but in AC, I usually like my results.

That’s all for now. I’m uber-busy again at the office, so this post is sucking time away from me. Sign up for DADI and pimp it, will ya? Thanks!

I’ve decided to live blog a 45-person turbo SNG. I’m playing with six other bloggers. Once I got the mind to play, I decided to IM everyone and see who was interested. It’s a good group: Drizz, TripJax, WeakPlayer, Kaellinn, Garthmeister, Mowenumdown, and me. Mow was the first one out.

9:46- I have about 1300. I lost some when my JT hit a straight, but lost to a higher JA straight. Blinds are already 50/100. In the BB, its folded to me, so I bet to 300 with A5o and take the blinds. I then fold 22, with one limper before me. SB goes all-in so I’m happy.

9:50- BB with Q5. The flop is 2 diamonds, and I have none. The small stack SB (the only other player in the hand) min bets and I smooth call, hoping to bluff a flush if the next card is a diamond. It is, and he checks. I bet 300, about half of his stack. He folds. Victory! I then fold my SB to Garthmeister’s bet in MP. He’s the only other blogger at my table.

9:52- 77 on the button, and the shortstack on my right limps. I raise to 600. 75/150 blinds. SB and BB fold, and as expected, the shortstack has to call with A4. I take it down. 2415.

9:54- Drizz is out. QQ in MP. 3x BB bet. Called by a player. Ace on the flop. I bet 3x again, but he pushes. I fold. 1515. Kaellin has joined our table, to my right in a severe shortstack. And he’s out 77 v QQ.

9:58- Weak is at our table, and I’m sitting on his BB.

10:00- Hammer! 100/200 blinds with 1400. Raised to 600 from MP/LP and take the blinds. I show it too. Garth types BOYAKASHA! I, of course, type HAMMER! Garth then doubles up with AT v. AK preflop. 1590. Antes are now in effect, and I’m officially in the Rule of 10!

10:02- Limp with KQ in the CO. Stupid move when I miss the flop. Weak is out in the next hand, 2 pair v a set. 1090.

10:04- AK in LP/MP. I push and take down the flop. 1540.

10:05- Folded to me in the BB with K3. 1615 or so after paying some antes and folding.

10:06- 200/400 blinds, 25 antes, and 1590. AA. All-in in EP/MP. Take the blinds. I show, and two people say NH. WTF? I didn’t do anything! 2315 though. Nice! Still in the Rule of 10 though.

10:09- Fold my BB and SB to EP raises and suddenly I’m back down to 1640.

10:11- Down to 12 players, and I’m #12. Doesn’t look good. I’m going to look for any opportunities to push, now that we are shorthanded. Blinds are 300/600, 50 ante and I have 1540. Desperation Station. 64h in the BB, folded to me. 66 in SB. I have to fold to Garth’s big raise in MP. 1690.

10:13- A7o v. JTo. I raised all-in from EP and the SB called, because he had 8K or so on top of me. He hits his T on the flop, but I river the Ace! I have over 3K. Weak calls it a suckout. I call it a redraw. After all, I was ahead when all the money went in.

10:14- AQs in the SB. Raise from EP so I push on top. Vs. 66. I hit my Q on the flop, and I have 6780. I want to raise on the button with KTs on the next hand, but I fold. Flop is KT, but one guy is all-in and rivers a straight.

10:16- Trip is out. We are down to 10 and only Garth and I are left. 6180.

10:20- Garth is out in 8th. I’m ITM. Folded to my T4s in the BB. KJo in SB. I complete the blind and flop top 2 pair. I check-raise. He calls and I push after the next card. He calls with K4. Over 14K now. AT on the button. I fold, just to be safe. T-high flop, but all spades, and I had none. I’m 2nd in chips!

10:24- Push with K8o in late position, because the two blinds have under 2K. They both fold and I steal the blinds. Raise 2x the BB (3600 total) UTG with A9o. Someone pushes all in for 4K more and with a 15K pot, I have to call. He has A8. He hits his 8. Oh well oh well. 8K left.

10:26- Folds to my BB. I love that. I complete my SB and then fold when I miss the flop.

10:27- A shortstack is all-in in the BB, but gets lucky and triples up. Damn. The other shortstack triples up in the next hand. Ug!

10:29- J2 in the BB. Someone pushes for less than the BB with K6. I flop a J, but he rivers a K. A8h in SB. I’m going to push with the 3,771 I have behind me. Vs. TT, I flop two hearts, but river an Ace, which is enough to double up and have 12K.

10:31- Small stack doubles up after being dominated. No one can lose in this damn final table!

10:32- I push in MP with 9Ts. I’m out in 7th. $6 for my effort. The last play was suspect, but one guy was all-in in the SB no matter what, and I hoped to steal the BB, which was a decent amount of scratch. Someone called my all-in after me, and to make it worse, the shortstack hit a four flush. If he lost, I’d take 6th place. Oh well. I placed, and for that I’m proud.

Man, that Kelly Pickler is a breath of fresh air. And, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you are simultaneously fortunate and missing out.

I just finished watching the WSOP 2004 Main Event on ESPN Classic in which Raymer gives a sort of play-by-play regarding the action. I have to dub it the most enlightening and interesting thing to happen to televised poker since the WPT started. Amazingly, out of the 700 channels I get via cable, the Game Show Network (GSN) is not one of them, so I haven’t seen an episode of High Stakes Poker yet. I hear its great, and I always felt that there would be a benefit to televising cash games, but until I see it, the jury is out.

As for the 2004 WSOP with Raymer commentary, I DVR’ed the program a month or more ago. Since Howard Stern left me for Sirius radio (and I’m still too cheap to buy Sirius…but I will), I’ve been watching a little bit of DVR’ed TV every morning as I get dressed. I like to DVR movies over night, and I just finished watching ‘Red Dawn’ for the first time. What a movie! It’s by far the 2nd best collaboration between Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze.

But I digest. My point was, you can learn a heck of a lot more about a game listening to a player’s commentary after the fact than you can watching the action. Raymer provides details on how many hands occurred between the hands actually shown, analysis on opponents’ plays, and generaly insight into his strategies. I have to admit though, he came off as a bit too nice. I don’t think he once said that a play made was a bad move, and always blamed it on bad timing for the play. Truth be told though, he backed up all of his statements, so at least his kindness is justified.

I’m looking forward to next years’ DVD or ESPN show, featuring Tiffany Williamson commentary of her play in the WSOP 2006 Main Event. “Here was thinking a King and a Jack that missed the Ace-high board might still be good, because they are Suited! Also, I like the Jack because he is cute and he’s kinda winking at me. I had to think for a good 20 minutes when I was raised all-in, mostly because I was confused. I mean, you can’t spell any words with just a K and a J. This was the hardest game of Scrabble ever.”

Where was I. Ah, poker. I’ve been playing badly lately. At the WWdn event, last night, (my first WWdn event), I was doing well until I moved from the “TV table” to a table with some familiar faces. I then proceeded to donk off most of my chips on a stupid hand. I held AhQc and raised pre-flop. A player who re-raised me preflop a bit earlier with the Hammer called my bet. The flop came down all hearts. With the nut flush draw, I bet out big. He called. On the turn, after missing the draw, I bet out big again. He called. I had about 550 left in front of me, and most of the chips were in the middle, offering great pot odds. I missed on the river and mekely checked. He pushed all-in. I folded, glad to last another hand…until he showed that he was drawing to the 2nd nut flush and had nothing else. I basically handed my money to this prag. I should have been more conservative in the first place. I then proceeded to push with the Hammer (a no-no in my book), and took down some blinds. I pushed again in a couple of hands with 88 and was called by AQ. He hit his Q and with 95 left, I pushed with the hammer again, knowing that I’d need a miracle because someone would call. Three people called, and one of them hit their Ace. That was all, folks.

I’m also running bad at the limit tables. I think I need to relax a bit, because it seems like variance more than anything. I have to remember to concentrate and stay on my game. I really have to play live. I almost forget what chips feel like.

I think that is all for me today. I believe I have a full roster for the 45-person SNG Challenge, but I need to confirm some information. Final decisions will be released today or tomorrow. Have a good one people.

Oh, and if you don’t know, yo’ ass better call somebody! DADI Shorthanded event, Monday at 9pm, $10+1 on PokerStars, password: BlogsAreGay.

Okay, it’s set. If you are interested in entering the 45-person SNG challenge, please click on THIS LINK to the 45-PERSON SNG CHALLENGE blog. All the details are there.

I plan on limiting the competition to 8 bloggers, but this may be amended depending on interest. Start date is on Monday, following the DADI event. Sign up!

Also, I am sick as a dog and trying to finish the workday as quick as possible so I can crawl into bed. So, no Genoa for me…again.