Regular Sunday Night Tourney?

If any of the poker journal keepers are interested in a regular, Sunday night tourney, please e-mail me at:

Fzdyer@yahoo.com

I have found a site willing to host a weekly tournament for us.

The rules of entry must be a regularly updated poker journal. I will make exceptions based on my personal choice. For instance, if you don't keep a regular journal, but have journal-type entries on a site like 2+2, that is no problem (David Ross).

If you post stories on other poker discussion sites, and seem to be a regular, with journal-type qualities, that may be acceptable (Al Capone Jr; Eye of Sauron).

If you have a website, and post long, detailed trip reports with regularity, that might be fine, also (Sgt. Rock).

If you are a dealer who posts regular diary or journal entries, that would be good (Linda Geneen/Bellagio).

Just come beg a little bit, point out your posts, and I'll decide on an individual basis.

If you are starting a poker journal today, just to appease me, after months or years of absolutely no contribution to the written poker world, forget it. Not even if you promise to keep it going.

If you are a husband/wife, roommate, or some other duo under the same roof, wishing to play in the same tournament, choose one player only, two players under the same roof will not be allowed.

Friday, February 27, 2004

I didn't feel so hot on Friday. The cold was over, nothing to fear there, but I just wasn't 100%. Go figure.

James was in the poker room, talking to April about some new procedures and passing out new rules for tourneys. I asked him about the change to 20 minute levels. He had forgotten that they were only 15 minutes, and accidentally put up 20. I was happy about it, but the happiness didn't last, as he said he would fix that immediately. He feels the tourneys are too long as it is, it hurts the cash games afterwards (too late to play), and is considering adding antes once we get to the 200/400 blinds. I am actually in favor of this. It is the 2nd hour that kills us, not the third. If we can survive the 2nd hour, we are usually going to get to the final table, or close.

The Belle cut off James' access to my journal. He was reading it a home, but during a storm his PC died, so he hasn't read any of my entries for a couple of weeks. Now I know why he has been so lax about the abuse going on in the room. He usually acts a bit more tough, but I hadn't heard about any reforms. Well, it is because he didn't know any of this was going on in the last couple of weeks. Glen certainly wasn't going to tell him. That might mean a change for Glen, and Glen hates change (the evening floorman).

James wants me to send him some of the worst of it. He was cringing when I told him some of the things that have been happening at the Belle, and the fact that I've been publishing them on the Internet. He really wants to have the best cardroom in the world.

I was assigned table one, the crazy table. It was crazy. Every hand I played was pretty much all-in, if I was still there on the river. Even at the first level. Those guys will cap of every round of play regardless of their hand, in Omaha.

I usually had at least 1/4 the pot, if not half. I am very careful during the first hour of play, since the rebuys aren't such a hot deal compared to the add-on. One hand I got rivered both ways and had to rebuy. At least I got away with just one rebuy.

Betty was actually being nice to me. I can't figure it. She was cheering me on and complimenting me like nothing had happened last week. She was very cold, as table one always gets a draft from a huge AC vent outside of the poker room. Glenn gave her his jacket. It was my suggestion, but she thanked Glenn, since I never said anything out loud and she thought Glenn noticed her shivering. I don't mind, I would rather keep it that way. I don't want her to know I'm concerned about her in the least, lol.

During the first hour of the tournament, I got hot and started having these strange sweats. Before this, I was cold. I'm always cold. So I knew the sweats meant something. I was in the two seat, which is usually very cold. Everyone else was cold and I was sweating and feeling weird. I got some water, got this diet pineapple julias drink that Janet, our fantastic server, makes for some of us diabetic players. I started feeling better. Suddenly, I was 100% again, after feeling bad all day. It was like I had a fever, then it broke, I started sweating, and I was fine. I have to be the most strange person on earth. Janet thought maybe I was going through those changes that women go through in their 30's, but I assured her and everyone at the table that I don't have those troubles anymore, that I was "spayed." LOL, everyone got a good laugh out of it.

Larry was at our table and it seemed like he and Ionizer Bob got into an all-in war during the second hour. They seemed out to get each other after Bob sucked out on Larry's all-in, and Larry only got 1/2 the pot. Once that hand put Larry on alert, they started battling it out back and forth. Bob has the wrong impression of Larry. I'm not sure if I should tell Bob what Larry is all about, because I don't think Larry wants me to ruin his tough guy image, lol.

Eventually Bob did knock Larry out of the tourney. He thinks it's so cute that Larry stomped off. He thinks Larry was really mad and upset. He is going to get burned badly if he keeps this false image of Larry in his mind while he is playing. Then again, he's probably been burned by Larry lots of times, before Glenn and I even showed up in Laughlin. Go Larry!

Glenn got seated at my table when we were down to the final two. He got knocked out before it got close.

I hung on for a long time. I think the accidental 20 minute levels helped quite a bit. It gave me an extra hand or two before the blinds increased, per level. I was able to make more plays, before making desperation bets.

I had to fold trash after trash, which landed me on the bubble, in the BB, all-in for my last chip. C'est la vie, things are getting better!

Thursday, February 26, 2004

I was seated at the four table. Usually, the way the tourney tables are decided is the breaking up of games by the majority of players being in tourneys. Management re-seats the non-tourney players to existing games, and tables that end up with only a couple of players left are used for the tournament. Usually these tables are on the right side of the poker room, and kind of wind into the back tables, which are the last used for cash games.

Since there is no-smoking anymore in the tourneys, all of the tourney tables are in kind of a section by themselves. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out. Sometimes a table will be right in the middle of the tourney section, but is still a cash game. It is just a freak occurance when one of these tables has few to no players participating in the tournament.

That is what happened on Thursday. A cash game was kept running in the middle of the tournament tables. It is usually no big deal, but on this occasion, there just happened to be a lot of smokers at that particular table. Not the kind of smokers who care that others do not smoke, hence being a little more polite, but the kind of smokers who assert, "We are allowed to blow smoke in your face, because we smoke and this is a smoking room." Everyone knows those type.

I am fortunate in the fact that smoke doesn't bother me. I have no idea why. I would suspect it is because my Mom smoked from before I was even conceived. My Dad never smoked, but both of my Stepdad's have been almost chain smokers.

Anyway, there was a guy next to me in the tourney who was definitely affected. He never said a thing. He pulled his turtleneck up over his mouth and sometimes nose, when it got overwhelming, but he never said anything rude. He coughed during almost the whole tourney. He was a tourist, and I have never seen him.

Doug, the TD, asked the smokers at that table to please be a little more polite about their smoking (and Doug smokes, so this shows you how rude they were being). They started laughing and heckling our table, urging other smokers to blow the smoke at us, and "puff away," (according to one of the group), to irritate our table as much as possible. Soon more than half of the table was smoking and blowing it at us. They were all holding their cigarettes out towards us, so that the smoke would waft over to our table.

I went and got Glenn's fan, to blow it back at them. We never said a word. I put it in front of the guy next to me, in his drink holder, so that he wouldn't suffer so badly.

He never said a word, even though he was clearly uncomfortable. All of the bad behavior was on the part of the other table.

Sad that our society has gotten this atrocious.

My losing streak was broken a bit by a few split pots and quarters of big pots. I survived after the first NL Omaha 8 hand. Thank you, God!

I did receive an A2xx hand twice. I am not running quite so badly anymore.

I played quite a bit more passively, but Omaha 8 encourages passive plays. I can check call until I have the nuts, then pump the pot for all I have.

Glenn got moved to my table when we were down to 30 players. Glenn went out almost immediately. There is an older senior named Jerry who loves Omaha. He plays the highest limit offered until the game breaks up for the tourney, then plays the tourney, and if he is not in a commanding lead when we go to no-limit, he just shoves all-in every hand until he busts out, then goes back into the newly formed cash game (formed from players who bust out early).

So poor Glenn got caught in Jerry's crossfire. Jerry kept going all-in every hand. Glenn woke up to A267s and had to call. Naturally the flop came all high, and instead, both Jerry and Glenn were eliminated by another player with a high hand in between.

I managed to stay on.

Finally we were down to 20 players, so I was assured of WPT points. I kept running short, so I took chances when I needed to win a pot, or at least halve it.

In my final hand, I was in the blind and flopped top pair, with an open-ended straight draw on an all high board. I had to call all-in, and got two pair, but that made the bettor a straight. C'est la vie.

At least I'm not busting out first anymore! What a triumph!

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

And the beat goes on...

I didn't have to play any cash games to further my losses, as the Tuesday night tourney rarely sells out. So maybe I should say that is my +EV for the night? LOL.

I drew a table with a lot of calling stations. Too many, in fact, given my recent string of losses. I went down in flames once again. My hands were as follows: KK, AKo, KK, 76s (bb), KJs (sb), ATs.

The ATs was at the beginning of the 2nd hour, the NLHE portion of the tourney. Naturally someone at our shorthanded table just happened to have AJs, haha.

Ward and I were both running so badly, that I proposed a "last shorter" bet. Ward would have won it, as he went out right before me! Can't even get knocked out before Ward, I must be losing my touch.

One of the dealer's said loudly, "That's Felicia. She is either the first one out, or wins the whole thing!" Lately I've been the first one out :)

Glenn didn't last long after I did. Ironically, he went out versus the same hand as me. AJs. He had AKo, but got no help, whereas Mr. AJs got his jack.

A petition was passed around the poker room to return to the rule of no railbirding during tourneys. I would suppose that the reason the petition was successful was due to what happened with Ali on Friday. I would assume, also, that the petition was started by Betty, out of spite to myself and Glenn, after I threw my sarcasm routine on her.

Naturally, Glenn and I were not asked to sign the petition, nor did we even know there was one, until the rule was changed. I am sure that we would be the last people to be asked to sign the petition (even though I agree with it), since according to Betty and the worst players in the room, Glenn and I have been cheating from Day One (see my old posts about some of the locals telling James that we were cheaters and asking that we not sit at the same table).

Some of the absolutely clueless locals always accuse people of cheating if they win more than their fair share of games and tourneys. So Glenn and I were targets from the start. Of course these people never took it into consideration that perhaps Glenn and I are playing better poker than they are, lol. To them, poker is luck, and no one wins more often than his fair share. Believe me, Glenn and I aren't singled out. There are a dozen of these "so called" cheating couples and friends (partners).

To my knowledge, only the couple from Montana is openly cheating. The couple from California rarely come to the Belle, so we won't even go into them. The couple from Montana are horrible and blatent at it, so their "edge" is completely eliminated when they play at the same table as me. Not to mention that they aren't good players in the first place.

My motto has always been, "If you have to cheat to win at poker, you are probably no good at poker."

Of course, if someone is excellent at cheating, I wouldn't see it, so who knows. But then again, if they are so good at cheating, I doubt they would be playing small potatoes at the Belle.

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I put a few pics up on my website. I saw no reason not to make a photo album, so I did. I'm not so fond of the Don King looking shadow of my hair in the pic on the main page, but my shaved down Yorkie, Dax, was just too irresistable. For a winter pic of Dax, see the photo album. Ironically enough, Glenn likes Dax with the longer "Yorkie" hairdo, whereas I like the shaved down Dax.

One journal keeper saw a photo of me in summer clothing, and begged me to post that one, claiming my readership would multiply overnight, lol. Um, do I really want those readers? No, not really. So I deleted that one. I will probably add more pics in time. I'd like to put up pics of our house, our town, Laughlin, etc. One day I will also get the film developed of the first (and only, so far) trophy I have ever won playing poker. Given that we take less than a roll of photos per year, it could be a long time!

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My Journal Keeper of the day is:

http://home.comcast.net/~sgt.rock/

I wouldn't call Sgt. Rock a poker journal as we think of modern day poker journals, per se, but he is incredibly detailed and interesting. I have been reading his trip reports for years, and I am never disappointed!

Monday, February 23, 2004

Wow, I'm running bad. It's official now. Running bad. Playing bad? Maybe somewhat.

I played about two hours of 4/8 FK and got hammered. No, I don't mean 72o, I mean I didn't win a hand. Two hours, with plenty of quality starting cards, yet never won a hand. Down about $175.

Thinking this would make me a clear favorite for the tourney, I sat down with happiness. After all, I might have lost $175 playing a cash game, but I was sure to win at least $40 in the tourney (LOL).

The Grim Reaper followed me throughout the tournament. In the limit portion I played two hands outside of the blinds. Both times I got nothing: 77, QJs. At the very end of the limit portion I had A6s in the BB and flopped a six. The board was 762. I went all-in with my remaining red ($5 chip, lol). Naturally someone had a seven. Why he was playing trash in EP is beyond me, but whatever.

So many times I've come back from the break and started killing the table. Things seem to turn around. Not this time, however, as the monkey stayed on my back. First hand after the break I was dealt KQs. It was passed to me in LP. I decided to go for the steal. Also, three people from our table hadn't made it back from the break, so we were severely shorthanded.

The BB pondered his decision for a full minute. He was clearly agonized to call such an early all-in. He must have thought he was up against a large pocket pair. But then it dawned on him that I had lost every, single hand I'd been dealt, and he gladly called, knowing that he could beat me, too. After all, everyone else had!

KQs against 99. Naturally the flop was all rags, turn, river, nothing that could even beat a nine.

First hand of the "real" tourney and I'm gone. C'est la vie...running bad.

Yeah, I know, I said I was going to slow down, as a new strategy. I meant it. This was just too good of an opportunity to steal. It was a mistake, but not by much. The BB really shouldn't have called an all-in. He didn't have that many surplus chips to burn. But it is easier to call an all-in when you see that a player has lost every hand. Every confrontation they have been involved in, they have been outdrawn. You see them lose hand after hand, and subconsciously, whether you realize it or not, you are more apt to call them. You don't fear them, their raises mean nothing. The two cards they hold are trash, regardless of whether they are AA or 72o.

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I guess that someone wised up ESPN to the fact that Razz is boring. Now I see they are going to cover a Stud and an Omaha tourney instead. Good job, whoever you are.

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Not long after I busted out, Glenn busted out. As we were walking out the door, we saw little Gene entering the Belle. I had heard that he won one of the $2500 WPT seats at the Riverside. Woohooo! Since the first one, which is rumored to have been fixed, was won by the poker room manager, the rest are being snapped up in rapid succession. Gene was able to get one, so now he is not worried about trying to get enough points for the Belle's promo. He was about sixth on the list, now he has dropped down, due to not playing all of the tourneys. Go Gene!

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Okay, I give up. Please, one of you many blogger geeks, tell me how I can get updates to the bloggers sent to me. Someone said something a couple of weeks ago on their journal about getting updates, rather than going through all of the journals every day to see who has made a new entry. It is getting overwhelming, even for someone like me, who can read very quickly. Help!

Felicia :)

Sunday, February 22, 2004

Like the rest of the poker journal community, I, too, was unable to get the hand history of our tournament from Choice. Boo!

I will attempt to write up a tourney story, but lack of data might skew some of my details. If/when Choice ever sends us the history, I can go back and edit this post.

I was immediately dismayed when I opened the tourney window for Choice. Last minute entrants were signing up in numbers. Two of them signed up right before the tourney started. They stuck out like a sore thumb, because I had never heard of them, and they were BOTH from Lakewood. Now, I am not accusing anyone of cheating, but this is a big no-no in the Internet poker world. To have a husband/wife playing in the same tourney, which is very small, at the same time, should not be permitted.

As usual, I was the only one who seemed to notice this. Or at least, I was the only one who spoke out about it. By the time I educated a few people about this duo, it was too late to do anything about it. This really bothered me.

Many of the participants were upset about the fast structure of the tournament. It didn't worry me in the least. For one, I am used to playing in very fast tourneys. Choice's structure was like the WSOP compared to the Belle, lol. Also, the day of the tourney, I contacted support, to get the structure. The support man, Luis, gave me the wrong information, but it didn't make much of a difference, because the structure he gave me was even faster than it turned out to be, haha!

I would advise participants of any tourney to study the blind structure before signing up for, and playing in, a tournament. Not to do so is unwise. We must be prepared, and investigate everything.

**find out the structure

**find out where the participants are from

**map out a tournament strategy well before the play date

I was dismayed that other journal keepers came into the tournament completely blind of these things.

Since there were 32 entrants, we were seated at four tables of eight each. I was seated in the eight seat. Iggy was in seven.

The tourney progressed quickly. Like I've already stated, the blinds didn't bother me in the least, I always managed to stay ahead of them.

I was able to steal quite a few pots, but for the most part, I was dealt quality starting hands. I wasn't being dealt premium hands, and only received two Group One hands the entire tourney (QQ, JJ), but I was hitting quite a few flops (TP), and able to limp many times in the blinds.

After the tourney was over, Iggy said he was surprised at the number of hands I played, given my rockish reputation. The truth was that I was dealt a lot of playable hands.

Towards the end of the tourney, at the final table, I was forced to make lots of plays with marginal hands. Luckily, I had many hot & cold hands to take the risks. Even more fortunate, was that most of the opponents were staying out of my way, fearing my raises and all-in's. I could have been knocked out of the tournament many times, but I survived, due to the lack of callers.

Most people think of the number of opponents they eliminate during a tourney. I never think of those things. I usually try not to get involved with all-in players, unless I am given a hand which warrants that action. I try to BE the all-in, not the all-in CALLER. So I don't believe I knocked any players out of the tourney. That is consistant with my playing style. I don't have to knock out any player, except 2nd place, lol.

I was very successful and lucky throughout the tournament. I was given way too much respect by players who feared my experience.

Naturally, luck and respect matters most on the last hand played, haha.

I was in the SB with A8s. We were down to the final seven players. I completed, although raising would be another option here. We had one EP limper as well as the free BB.

I hit the flop solidly with A8x. There were two spades on board, so no time to slowplay. The button designed for all-in is placed right below the button for the minimum bet. I accidentally hit the minimum bet button, doh!

The BB got out of the way, but the EP player raised. Oooh, just what I wanted, although I didn't mean to slowplay it like that. I put him on an ace, and my two pair clearly would have him dominated.

I reraised all-in. He called quickly.

Ooooh, what joy! He didn't even have a pair! He had limped with KJo and had a gutshot! Wooohooooo, I was a 96.36% favorite to win the hand.

But then the turn made him openended.

And as fate would have it, he got his runner-runner straight on the river. Over 96% doesn't mean very much if someone catches runner-runner perfect.

So he had me outchipped, and knocked me out on the bubble. Call me Ms. Bubble, lol.

I thought his excuse for calling my all-in made the beat funnier than anything else that had happened in the tourney. He said something about me pushing him around the whole game, and since he finally had me outchipped, he was in the position to stop the bullying. Hehe! Now those are the players I love.

The software at Choice wasn't the greatest, but it certainly wasn't the worst either. I was surprised at so many negative reactions to it. I've played in tourneys that had even worse structures, with abominable software.

These journal keepers are just spoiled :)

The six remaining contestants went on, all of them in the money. I was so happy for them.

My biggest surprise was Scott, the fat guy. I didn't see that one at all. He ended up taking second. He thinks his play of A6 on the last hand was bad, but I would have been all-in immediately, with that kind of hand, head's up, so there ya go. I am extremely aggressive when shorthanded and HU, and my results have been fabulous, so I can't think of any other way I would have played.

The worst complaint I have about Choice is that they closed the final table as soon as the last hand was over. I mean, BOOM, we were gone. No time to say congrats, no time to talk about the play, or find a place to congregate and chat. We were just kicked out like red headed stepchildren, lol.

I hope you have enjoyed my incomplete report. I had a great time, even for someone who hates Internet Poker!

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FINAL TABLE:

1) Mean Gene

2) The Fat Guy

3) Anistrophy

4) Poker Code

5) Grubby

6) Penguin

7) Felicia

8) Jeremy

9) Chris Falco

10) Hdouble