A picture is worth 37 words.
All the money went in on the flop. Villian called pf, I popped it x3 or so, villian called. I shoved the flop, naturally. Notice the number of chips in the middle, this was very late in the $32k Rush. So I go out around 65th for $114, instead of a deeper run towards four figures. Yup. Figures.
An awful lot of close calls this month, and pretty much nothing to show for it.
Recently you registered at coloradorockies.com for the opportunity to purchase 2010 Division Series tickets for games to be played at Coors Field. Unfortunately, your entry was not selected.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzt, you lose.
Do not pass go, do not collect $200, you are forced to watch WTBS and Skip Carey instead.
UPDATE: But for the ultimate post-river suckout, so to speak, a friend of mine got picked and gave me his code, so yay Mondo, and yay Rockies! First round playoff tix to be in the can in about 19.5 hours. Now, all we need to have happen is to actually make up that pesky 1.5 game deficit…
Yeah, this was my exit hand. I bet roughly 3.5x pf from UTG, he called. I shoved the flop:
Okay, so that stuff happens, but not usually for a 1.5m chip stacks deep in the 3r, gah:
I’m still rather curious about that call. Yes, I was gambling that he didn’t have an over diamond (or two), by representing a big diamond draw myself. But facing the all in from me, how do you call there with nothing but 3rd pair and an OESD, when there’s already a flush on the board? Interested in any thoughts. Was that call proper?
Three times 5+ hours deep in that tournament, I’d managed to get a top 20 chipstack, but a rivered chop about 45 minutes before this, blue my chance to get a truly dominant stack. Oh well. Frankly, I’m far more pissed off at the Colorado Rockies blowing a five run lead against the “phoning it in” Dodgers.
So what about hitting more that once? Well, I also had a deep run going in the JokerStars 1/4 mil lottery today, until another sick suckout took me out in 608th, where winning the hand would have given me a top 100 stack. Bah.
Really close today. At least I eked out a very small profit on the day (had tons of non-cashes…)
Aside from yesterday’s donkarama, this weekend has been about things a hell of a lot more fun than poker often is. Yeah, British cars, British car shows, and mountain drives. Of course, not only does my very non-smart phone take crap photos, it doesn’t help when I inadvertently delete a bunch of then while trying to e-mail to myself. Multi-point fuel injection? Fuck that shit. Multi-point epic fail, is what that was.
Anyway, yesterday was the grand tour of the Colorado Conclave, where just about every British car club in Colorado put their wheels on the road for a four hour cruise/rally through the mountains west of Arvada. We made our way through Clear Creek Canyon, back roads to Morrison and Evergreen, all over Jefferson County, out to Idaho Springs, over Lookout Mountain, and Squaw Pass. Beautiful times.
Of course, the Good Doctor Mondo and I do not own a British car. At least not yet. Our dear friends Mandy and Evan had invited us to join them on the sojourn, as a caravan of sorts. the Doc and I took turns driving Evan’s lovely red 1972 MGB:
Mandy and Evan made the trip in an even cooler 1959 Jaguar XK150. This is one seriously badass coach:
V-12 power, deep throaty exhaust, and some pretty serious pickup for a fifty year old car. I mean, S.P.E.C.T.R.E. agents would drive these cars. The XK150 was actually the predecessor to the iconic Jaguar E-Type. Back in the day, Jaguar was known for making the fastest production cars over there, period. Wow. I could listen to that exhaust note all day long.
Anyway, the day started off great. Damn, chilly, and foggy. Perfect. I mean that! I mean, if you’re driving British cars, driving these cars in British weather just adds to the experience. Everyone at Starbucks was looking at us weird, as we pulled up with the top down, but we didn’t care, we loved the chill. We grabbed our coffees and scones, and rolled down through the mist, to Arvada, where the tour began…top down all the way. The entire cruise was just a thing of beauty…the aspen are changing color, and we got to see an awful lot of it.
Unfortunately, the day didn’t quite end as well as it started. The XK150 had developed an arcing problem, and once we were back down into the Golden, CO area, the car kept cutting out, and eventually needed towing. So that certainly didn’t make Evan and Mandy’s day.
Our scare was a wee bit worse. The Good Doctor Mondo took two oxygen tanks with her, since we knew we’d be out for a long time…all well and good. Well, once back in Golden, we were going to enjoy lunch together before the drive back to Longmontucky. Seemed like a good point to switch her tanks out…oh crap. The backup tank had been left on, and was absolutely empty. Emergency, yeah. Her first tank had just a wee bit left. The Good Doctor Mondo didn’t want to go to any kind of emergency center…but by sitting perfectly still, and not talking, she was able to keep her oxygen saturation around 80% (ours is normally 95% or so), while I drove the MGB like a bat out of hell for 40 miles. I really didn’t know I could get one of those going so fast. Anyway, all was made okay in the end…
Sunday was much less dramatic, really. But it was really cool to go back to the car show proper, and lay eyes on everything from a dozen Sunbeam Tigers, to Jensens, to E-Types of many years (among many other Jags), Lotuses of every flavor, back to the early Elites, and even a Lotus 7, an Allard J2, some beautiful big Healeys and Sprites, more TR-4s and TR-6s than one could shake a stick at, and even an immaculate DB4. Very inspiring.
All in all, a great weekend.
“I don’t think Americans should be pitting Americans against each other,” – Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), while trying to justify $700 billion in non-offset spending directly into the pockets of the wealthiest 2% of Americans.
That’s right, Jon, you’re all against your self-styled concept of class warfare….that is, except when you’re trying to punish those long term unemployed because…well, they’re not in your class.
“[C]ontinuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work,” – Sen. Jon Kyl in justifying his party’s six week filibuster of extended unemployment benefits.
That’s right, you’re only against helping those who are probably too poor to donate to your endless campaign PACs. I get it. I understand. It’s hard for those without any class to avoid either class warfare or hypocrisy or, in your case…both. Simultaneously. It’s really hard for your most moneyed supporters to host fundraisers for you on their new yacht when they won’t get that second yacht until they can get the working class to pay for it.
I’ve got your new campaign slogan, for when you need it:
Jon Kyl, taking bread out of the mouths of babes to feed caviar to investment bankers since 1986.
How about:
Jon Kyl, helping to subsidizing shipping jobs out of America since 1986.
Hmmm…maybe lacking a bit of pizazz, but not missing any truthfulness. Note to self, hire Peggy Olson away from SCDP to come up with ten better taglines in the time it took me to write this post.
Hmm, Jonny boy, if you’re so against this perceived “class warfare” would you care to explain why you’ve voted at least three times against raising the minimum wage in this country? Oh yeah, because subsistence wage dollars don’t go into your PACs…
Yeah, if there’s a hell below, we’re all gonna go. You too, Jon, you fucking hypocrit.
For posting, and for poker. At least over here. After last weekend’s session of 20-something tournies, 33% ITM, and yet still saw my bankroll drop….actually, finishing 16th in a 1000 player MTT sucks when you’re out because AA < 44 and QQ < TT, both times losing to gutshots on the river. Shot in the gut, indeed. Woulda coulda shoulda been a very profitable day.
Well, let’s just say it’s time to refocus for a few weeks on something much more fun. The 2010 Colorado Rockies!!
Rocktember is a time when fresh players bloom by stealing their way to home plate and into your hearts.
Rocktember is a time when fans of the San Diego Padres begin quaking in their boots (a 2007 to remember, yo).
Rocktember is a time when the boys in purple just. can’t. lose.
Rocktember is a time when the usual national media suspects begin diminishing the peformance of Rockies’ hitters because they play 1/2 their games in Coors Field…and yet completely disregard the success of Rockies’ pitchers who also have to play 1/2 their games in Coors Field. (Oh yeah, for the SABR nerds out there, the Colorado Rockies have the most valuable pitching staff in baseball, as measured by WAR, for the 2nd year running. Smoke that.)
Anyway, Rocktember is simply that month before Rocktober, and yeah, good things happen then, too. And it’s hard to focus on recreational poker weekends when the boys are in town. Went to the game yesterday, going to the game tomorrow, and next Wednesday, and outta fairness to my one good half…well, there will be no poker this weekend, for sure. I’ll just have to do with watching Troy Tulowitzki cross home plate after another game-tying dinger:
Best seat ever, thank you Stubhub.
And to the San Francisco Gints, your season is about to climb into a hot air balloon. Those who know me know where that’s going…
Played my last session of the month this past weekend, and it was a pretty good one. Somehow, through hook or by crook, I managed to cash in seven of fifteen events. Most of them barely more than mincashes, except for one notable deep run, and one that was aided by my catching a most fortunate four outer on the river.
This was a $4.40 buy in NLHE tourney, limited to 1000 players. I’ve been playing quite a few of these $4.40/1000 max events on PokerStars lately. I like the somewhat-limited field size, insofar as NLHE is concerned, because on the rare chance I can survive the donktastic play long enough to make a final table, the entire event can still be done early enough for me to get a decent night’s sleep. And yes, by “donktastic play”, I can sometimes be referring to myself, as happened here.
This was a 4-max event. With only four players per table, it usually stands to reason that marginal hands can gain increased value, as you’re unlikely to be running into monster starting hands as often. So I actually like AJo in this situation. With around 8-10 tables left, and me holding around 10BBs, I decided to shove my AJo. Oops, ran right into AKo. Doh. The K on the flop made things a LOT worse, but the ten on the flop also gave me a tad bit of hope. Wha? Queen on the river? BINK!
So yeah, I will fully admit that every payout jump from there to the end had more to do with a lucky ducky river four outer than anything else. Cool.
Well, eventually, I did manage to parlay some good cards and well timed bets to make it to the final table, but in a pretty woeful chip position, holding around 5% or so of chips at the table:
At this point, I really expected to make it no further, and I was okay with that. However, I was not to be entirely denied. After a few orbits at the final table, I got it in BvB, and found myself in a classic race:
And once again, it took another bink on the river to stay alive and double up:
To be fair, I had a lot more outs this time, as any ace, queen, jack, or nine would have given me the hand. But once again, I’m reminded that no matter how few seats there may be at the table, just having a couple of high paint is no guarantee of leading preflop…
After a very well played game, chco9 lost his way soon after. Unfortunately, the near 600k in chips I had after that hand pretty much equated to my high water mark (though I would get back there when AK > the chip leader’s A9o a couple orbits later.
In the end, with blinds and antes at 12500/25000/3125, I shoved my last 9 BBs on the with QJo on the button, and went down to K8s. The other two players each had six times my meager stack, so I was looking for a spot to get it in, and I was quite happy to just have two live cards at the time. But such is life.
Nevertheless, I once again set a personal best for most levels deep in a tourney (35), and really, how can anyone be upset about turning $4.40 into $280, especially given the four outer that should have ended my night at around twenty bucks?
So yeah, I’m pretty sure my August is done. I haven’t done a great job of tracking month to month results. However, seeing as I’ve been pretty much a break-even MTT player at PokerStars, and yet this August saw me reach a 108% ROI and 30% ITM, I’m pretty sure this has to be one of my top three or four months ever, even if all of the actual profit came from two third place finishes.
Anyway, good luck on the felt, ya’ll….and here’s to August.
…doesn’t mean you can drive one like Burt Reynolds’ stunt driver
http://www.wdtn.com/video/videoplayer.swf?dppversion=2397
Brendan S. Eden is the luckiest man on the planet right now.
The 19-year-old Mason, Ohio, man reportedly was speeding at more than 100 mph when he hit a guardrail, went airborne and slammed into an overpass. The car broke into three pieces and threw him from the wreckage. The dashboard-mounted camera in a police cruiser caught the spectacular crash that left Eden in critical condition and shut down an Ohio freeway for more than six hours this morning.
Read More http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/08/video-insane-100-mph-crash-caught-on-tape/#ixzz0xsBiwpnf
Wow.
Hope he lives through it, but I honestly wouldn’t mind if he’s never in a position to get behind a steering wheel again.
So goes the summer, I do suppose.
I haven’t played much in the way of poker lately, and except for one horrendous marathon session (which ended badly), it’s been pretty much a break-even proposition. Still having somewhat more consistent results in the various Omaha variants than elsewhere, but just not a whole lot going on.
For at least 7-10 days, I’ve been dwelling on the idea of writing an uber-post of sorts, detailing my thoughts on the proposed Islamic cultural center at Park51, Cordoba, whatever you want to call the location. Certainly, a couple bloggers I consider friends have written well thought out and articulate pieces on the matter. Both of which I disagree with (for differing reasons), naturally, but both are writers I respect and enjoy.
But then, for a while it seemed that anything I could possibly contribute to the discussion has already been better articulated by others. That, and I’m still lazy. And that I spent four days in hotter-than-ass Austin, and wasn’t going to spend that time blogging…and I’d already spent enough time and words and energy debating this issue with friends in their Facebook comments, and in other forums.
At least I felt that way until the recent LOL-worthy highlarity over on Fixed News, where, in some rather ignorant, mean-spirited, misguided, and completely stepping-in-your-own-shit manner, the morning douches over there attempted to create some mythical guilt-by-assocation conclusions that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf somehow both supports terrorism, and is directly connected to some shadowy Saudi benefactor, and therefore, cannot be trusted or believed:
Yes, it’s true, the “shadowy figure” funding the imam is none other than Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal….the SECOND LARGEST SHAREHOLDER of News Corp, the parent company to Fox News. C’mon boys, follow the money!! Really, if you actually think the proposed cultural center at Park 51 is to be a bastion for future terrorist training, because of the source of its funding, then you clearly have no other choice than to shut down Fox News, as it’s clearly funding by terrorist sympathizers, and profits from terror, no?
The most awesome part of this is after Fixed News complained for months about how no one else would cover the supposed ACORN scandal (which was actually manufactured by intentionally misrepresented video editing), and how only Fox News Channel will actually go after the hard news, they’re far too chickenshit to even name the person they’re accusing as being a shadowy terrorist financier of Iman Rauf, even those that very same person is their own boss.
C’mon, Fox, keep following the money, that’s right. I guess perhaps one could say that Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal does support terrorism…after all, he financially supports Doocy, Kilmeade, O’Reilly, and Beck. Maybe Fox News should relocate out of Manhattan, after all, dem dere’s some turrists.
Really, if that’s the level of intellectual honesty that comes from the portion of the media driving the anti-Park 51 bus, that’s all that needs to be said, for now.
Good luck on the felt, y’all.
You got eight minutes or so? Snatch a dose of awesomeness. Pretty NSFW unless you got earplugs and can resist busting a gut.
And get us a cuppa tea, would you, Errol?
Mondo's Garage 