Saturday, April 10, 2004

Today was an awesome day for me. Yeah, I won another $42 placing 3rd in a Planet Stud 8 tourney, but that isn't what made it so awesome.

Very reluctantly, almost as if he didn't wish to say it, Iggy told me he was playing in a WSOP satellite. This satellite was slated to pay 11k for the main event of the series. As many seats as the prize pool would accommodate.

Unfortunately, it was a holiday weekend, and although the buy-in was ridiculously low, only 123 players decided to participate. This meant that Stars couldn't even pay out ONE seat, much less multiple seats. When all of the dust cleared, the total prize-pool was only $10,530. You would think Stars would pony up for the additional $500, to send another one of "theirs" to the series, but perhaps they didn't think of that, or maybe they have already divvied the $500 into their greedy, little palms. After all, the brass ONLY make several million per year, each, so they need that $500 to get their Rolls washed once in while, LOL!

At any rate, when he told me that he was playing, I wanted to sweat him. Luckily Stars is loaded on my newly wiped out PC. So I found him before he could even tell me the tourney number and table. I'm good at hunting down prey, I mean friends, haha.

I was shocked to see Iggy the chip lead! By this time there were still about 80 players left, and here is Iggy, sitting on 23k! Iggy, is this "MY" Iggy? Iggy the rock? Iggy the boulder? Iggy who has to dust off his chips every few days?

He told me about several group one hands that he had, which were called by other group one hands, but he always had the higher rank, his hands held up, and he doubled through yet again.

Eighty quickly became sixty, with Iggy holding strong. He was dealt a little more than his fair share of premium cards. That always helps! Plus Iggy knows how to fold. Like me, he is a "folding station." He can make big, big laydowns, that are very difficult for other players to make. There were several moments that I had to hold my breath, as he was forced to decide whether to play on, or fold his group one hand, due to the numerous overcalls. I admit that I probably wouldn't have had the patience to fold those hands.

One that sticks out in my memory was this: A very loose/passive player, who just wants to play ATC and will overcall several all-in's called Iggy's huge raise when Iggy had QQ. Then, another play went over the top of Iggy for all of his chips. Iggy had a huge decision to make. Yes, he had them both covered, but the second raiser would cripple him immensely if he had Iggy dominated and his hand stood up. It was pure agony for me to watch. Iggy can make these laydowns, I tend to shrug my shoulders and go for the gusto. Iggy laid down his queens.

The overcall had 44 (???). This guy truly just liked to play. Go figure! The reraiser had AKo. Amazing. Iggy was in the lead at the start. But then the flop brought 44x, and the overcaller would have taken a large chunk out of Iggy's lead. Was it the right fold? Probably. Iggy wasn't pot committed, even though he made a substantial raise BTF.

Iggy was truly "in the zone" during this entire tournament. I was very impressed. Mostly, watching Iggy play in the past, I have seen just fold, fold, fold. He makes me look loose, in comparison, and I'm about as tight of a HE player as they come.

Every time he chose to enter a hand, he was almost surely dominating. And wow, did his hands ever stand up! He was in that special place that all of us dream about. That fantasy where all of our premium hands stand up, and we never get sucked out on.

Time and again, Iggy doubled through. He went from 23,000 to over 150k during the time I watched him.

The final table came quickly. Since the tourney was winner-take-all, lots of moves had to be made. Most of the opponents understood that folding their way into the final table would accomplish nothing.

Three of the opponents at the final table shuffled the chip lead around. Iggy was one of them, but was almost always in the lead, due to his super tight, aggressive play. One of the leads was the guy with 44 from earlier. This guy was so loose, and such a caller, that he should have been eliminated long before. But he wasn't, as he made flush after flush on the river, or some other kind of suck-out, against all-in hands that clearly dominated his. He could never hang on to the chip lead, however, as he simply played too many hands, and naturally, not all of them won. I was hoping Iggy would get HU with this player.

The other lead was a much more knowledgeable player. He was probably the only opponent at the table who even realized what a tight player Iggy was, and made laydowns accordingly. He didn't like to tangle with Iggy. Sure, he stole lots of Iggy's blinds, because he knew Iggy would lay them down easily, but he also got out of the way when Iggy played back at him, or was in the pot with him. In this way, Iggy was able to steal from him, also, and bluff a few times, knowing this guy would lay down his hand.

I could see at the final table that several of the players had lost the winner-take-all mentality. After all, Stars wasn't even offering the prize package they had advertised. It was just a $10,530 prize pool, all of it going to the winner. None of them wanted to risk all of their chips anymore, they wanted to spread the money around, guaranteeing them some sort of prize for their hours of play.

Iggy was in the lead, along with the two other leads slightly trailing him. So when talk of a deal was brought up, Iggy and the two others said nothing. When it was six-handed, a shorter stack proposed that the three shorter stacks take 1k each, while the bigger stacks would get 2k each. None of the bigger stacks even acknowledged the offer.

I don't really think it is proper tourney etiquette for a short stack to propose a deal. Lots of people disagree with me, but I'm used to that, so I don't really care :) I think either the chip lead, or a comparable stack should initiate discussion of a deal, if there is any discussion to be had.

Two more players were eliminated and it was down to four. The stacks weren't even, but they weren't much different either. I believe it was costing over 10k to play one circuit around the table, and none of them had over 170k. So the tourney was becoming much more of a crapshoot than before. Once again someone proposed a deal. This time, all participants saw the logic of making some kind of deal, even if it was purely a save.

Instead, they agreed to a four-way chop. It really wasn't that out of line, because no one had a huge advantage, chipwise, over anyone else.

Iggy asked me to mail the floor, which I did immediately. I already had the e-mail ready to go, I just needed to push send.

A few hands went by before anyone realized that they should click sit-out. During that time, one guy got a huge lead, whereas another was the chip dog. So when the deal was being discussed, a couple of railbirds made it their business to get in the middle, talking about how unfair a four-way chop was. First of all, it was none of their business. Second of all, they weren't around to see the stack sizes when the deal was made.

They were so rude that the floor had to disable their chat. I think this bothered some of the finishers. I was of the mind that the deal was made, the stack sizes weren't skewed much, and that was that. Blow me!

Iggy finished as the 2nd chip lead, and got $2650 for a couple of hours of hard play. Woohooo, go Iggster! I was extremely proud of him, and honored to watch him play. I love seeing players who are in the zone, playing perfectly and having a good time, to boot!

As a footnote, right after this tournament, Stars decided to guarantee the 11k seat. Did they read my mind???? Did they get a billion complaints? Who knows. But as Iggy always says,

"Oooh, the humanity!"

Wednesday, April 7, 2004

A lot of things have been going on in my mind since the banning at the Belle. I guess I expected to be sad, to be hurt. I kept waiting for that "stage" of healing to come. It never did (and a week is more than enough for me to get to that stage, as everything with me generally happens very rapidly).

Instead, I feel almost relieved. It isn't fun being a 24/7 watchdog. I hated having to do the job for the dealers, the floorman (LOL, just saying that makes me laugh, since he never did ANYTHING, much less actually "watch" the floor), even the players. Why did I always have to tell them to return the button to the right player? Why was it my responsibility to tell them that Mrs. X was palming chips again? Why did I have to remind Little Gene for the 100th time to watch the booze with his diabetes?

I didn't have to do these things. They weren't my responsibility. No one was paying me to work at the Belle. But I felt duty-bound to do the right (ethical) thing, in every situation.

So there is no hurt. I just simply don't care. This is NOT to say that I'm not moving forward with Mandalay Bay Resorts. I am going to print out every bit of correspondence I have had since day one and send it to them. I have not been lax this last week. I have spread the word far and wide about my unfair treatment. Like days of old, a woman reports sexual harassment, the woman is punished. I was cast out of the cardroom the day I dared say "boo" to a man about inappropriate behavior. What's new?

Some bit of news that I have kept to myself, until now, was that I was going to be coached by Barry Tanenbaum. I was willing to pay the $100 per hour to promote my play. I had it all worked out, we were going to be in Vegas during the WPT and he had openings. So now I'm lost. Yes, I know that I want to continue poker, but to what extent. More on this later...

Since the banning, I have played in some tourneys online. On Thursday, I played in "King of the Zoo," which is an online tournament for people who post on 2+2, and more specifically the Internet Gaming forum, aka the Zoo. This KOTZ tourney happened to be Stud, my favorite poker game. I made it to the final table, out of about 50 participants. I was out at 8th. One bad beat by the chip lead, and then a hand I had to go all the way with, out of desperation. I had two jacks to start, but another player was in the lead from the beginning with two kings.

Playing that tournament made me remember how much I truly love Stud. It was easy to get all wrapped up in the HE hype. HE is where the money is, where the tourneys are. HE is spread all over Laughlin, whereas Stud is dead. But I can't ignore my feelings, and Stud has always been where my heart is at.

Sunday brought our weekly PJK tourney. I did well at a shorthanded table. We had eight seated, but four of the eight were sitting out! So we were four handed. I stole lots of blinds, yet just managed to tread water for a long time, since the blinds came around so fast due to four of the eight sitting out.

Once we got to the final table, I was in good shape with about 6k. Then, when we were down to seven, Jason made a raise with JJ. The raise amount smelled of the type that doesn't want a flop.

I had QQ, and felt that I had the best hand. Jason and I have played against each other so many times in the past that I figured he would know I had him dominated if I went over the top. So I did. And he didn't figure it out, so he called. He got a jack, and IGHN.

The PJK tourneys are going to become a big success, I just know it. Iggy and I both have great plans for the future. Of course, Iggy isn't even participating yet, so go figure, but he does have fantastic ideas for us.

Unfortunately, the "guest celeb" per week might have to be postponed until after the series. Too many celebs are interested in playing satellites, followed by series events. What gives? Like the series is more important than us??? LOL :)

On Monday, I started playing in some Stud 8 tourneys at Planet. They have them running 24/7. I have never seen so many multitable Stud 8 events at one site. Naturally, they don't draw a huge crowd, like some of the biggest sites, but they are very available, and the competition isn't too tough.

I bubbled on the first one. I think there were about 45 players. The second one brought me to the final table, but not in the money that time, either. The third one was last night. There were 47 players.

I was very short during most of the tourney. Planet has some lightening fast structure during the middle portion of the tournament. Sound familiar? I can handle that, I had to play turbo-tourneys for eight months at the Belle. Especially that second hour. The antes rise every 12 minutes. They go from a $2 ante to a $75 ante within 90 minutes. No, there are no rebuys, so there is no way to add chips to the table. This is a killer. Not even the chip lead is very secure by the time the antes hit 75/125/150/200. It is astronomical and adds a crapshoot element to the tourney. But there is still some skill involved because many players keep playing horrible drawing hands (one high card, two low. Three high cards, three straight, flush, etc). So when I have to make moves, which is fairly often, I am assured that I am almost always leading at third.

Sometimes I just have to close my eyes, grit my teeth, and keep my pointer over the bet/raise button, pushing, pushing, and hoping. This usually pays off.

When we were down to two tables yesterday, I finally got some awesome hands that stood up. I went from the shortest stack, at about 600, to having a solid, medium stack by the time we reached the final table.

A lot of people in these tourneys don't like to lay down a hand. Especially if they are the bring in, they don't like to lay it down on third to a raise. This is a huge, huge mistake in Stud. It's a mistake in any poker game, but in Stud they are just asking to be eliminated. I am the opposite. I will lay down my bring-in with pleasure. When I'm in though, be prepared to pay through the nose if you want to tangle with me. I take no prisoners, checking is not part of my repetoire (except the rare check-raise).

So I survived. I eliminated a few players at the final table, but mostly I let the innocents kill each other off with horrible starting hands.

I picked my battles, and eventually got head's up. Sure, I was a 3:1 dog, but I'm good at playing HU, and I can make a comeback.

We fought it out for about an hour! It just didn't go anywhere. He was too passive, I was too aggressive. He laid down too many hands when he could have had me, then he slowplayed hands to suck me in and I played so aggressively that I didn't know I was beat. So we went back and forth. I caught up with him, eventually, but I couldn't maintain the lead. He was just so passive that he kept checking monsters to me, letting me bet his hands for him. And when I did have something great, he would fold. So we see-sawed back and forth forever. Not even the ever rising antes and limits could eliminate one of us (it does slow down towards the end of the tourney, it is the middle that is the killer). I wondered if it would ever end, then proposed a chop. He was in the lead once again, but seemed as impatient to get it over with as I was. He also seemed to fear me, although that is hard to tell on the Internet unless someone just says it outright.

So we chopped first and second evenly.

Today I played in another Stud 8 tourney at Planet. This time I wasn't in any real danger of being eliminated early/mid tourney. I usually had the best hand from start to finish when I did make a move. I was never the chip lead, but I was secure and patient.

When we got to the final table this time, no one had a huge advantage, like Tuesday. Instead of one player having 400 and another having 15,000, no one had much over 4000, and no one was less than 1000. So that changed the dynamics a bit. I couldn't sit around, I had to go for the gusto.

The payout was very top heavy, just the way I like it. 50% to the winner, only the top 3 places pay. I wasn't going for third.

I quickly eliminated 8th and 7th. This final table was the most passive I've seen. Maybe because it was the afternoon crowd, as opposed to the evening crowd. They were very hesitant to tangle. I kept getting last position against a shortstacked bring-in. No one would stick their neck out to eliminate the shortstack, so I was constantly having to put them all in. I did it successfully a couple of times, and doubled them up a couple of times. In every case, they had too few chips for me NOT to call with any three cards. I quickly became the chip lead.

The guy to my right started out as the lead, but he was way too passive, and played three times the hands I played. So he killed himself in both respects, and kept losing the lead. Most of the time I had it.

Right before the break, at 90 minutes in, the passive guy to my left called my raise. I had a three low, A3/5, I believe. He just kept calling me. I had my low on 5th, 7543A, and caught a pair of fives. He never bet, I had no idea what he had, since his board showed a ragged bunch of cards that could be going either way. On the river he caught a five also, making him outdraw my made low with 6543A and a pair of jacks to beat my high.

I came back from the break as the chip dog. I believe there were six of us left. I wasn't discouraged. Stud doesn't seem to do that to me as much as HE. I think I know why this is, but I'll save that for another post :)

At any rate, I just started raising like mad. Sometimes I stole, sometimes I was called down, but I always made the best hand, or at least split it even, and with antes this big (200 by now, I believe), half a pot was nothing to sneeze at.

I kept plugging away. I treaded water from 5000-6000 for a long time. The antes were so huge, and most of the people were trying so hard not to be the bubble. So I stole lots of pots, but we were never seeing a river. I was the only one taking constant chances.

I finally got involved in one big hand that gave me the lead, and then I was off and running again. I picked on the small stacks so much that they were finally forced to make moves, and by that time it was too late. Everyone was being called, because the short stacks just didn't have enough to even make a substantial raise. So they were elminated quickly, and we were finally down to 3, in the money!

I was extremely fortunate when the best player out of the two left with me was the first to be eliminated. Naturally, I would rather play with the weak, passive guy. I can't remember who took out #3, but it was probably Mr. Passive, because he played so many hands. He had eliminated so many players, that he took back the chip lead and now had me covered 4:1.

I knew I could take him, though. He was way too timid. Sure, he was gonna slowplay me here and there, get some of my chips, but I was going to steadily be pounding on him.

Sure enough, I pulled up to even in no time at all. I took lots of chances, and got very lucky, but he would take NO chances, and fold everytime I bet and my board looked scary. Most of the time I had nothing, but I bet like I had what my board showed, and he believed me! So many times he would call ALL the way to the river, just to fold to one more bet! It was amazing, I had the perfect opponent.

A few times he trapped me with his super-passive slowplays (not raising with something like A7/A), but he could never quite get me out, because in between those plays, I kept stealing every hand.

The turning point came when he tried to slowplay kings. I had 87/6 and bet it like I had something the whole way. I ended up with a low, and three eights. He had two pair. Now I had a nice lead, and my style of play kept grinding him down.

The last hand of the tourney happened like this:

Date:	4/7/2004 6:08:00 PM

Players	Hole Cards	Up Cards	Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Total Bet	Win/Loss
azshorty			200,3000	1500	404.1,A			5104.1	-5104.1
FeliciaLee			200,1500,1500	1500	404.1			5104.1	5104.1

And boom, the tournament was over. Booooya!

Great News from Planet Poker--The Password is IN!!!

Planet has realized the time intensive labor that is required for our private tournament.

So a GREAT piece of news was sent to me about our tourneys.

They have software for password protection ready this Sunday! Yep, starting this Sunday, April 11, 2004, we will be able to sign up for the PJK tourney at the very last minute.

E-mail me for details. Do not give this password out to anyone else.

Also, I decided to go ahead and have them open a FeliciaLee account. I felt like the Domit nickname was too confusing to most participants. I didn't want another account under the same roof, but Glenn and I will NEVER play in the same tournament together, nor at the same table. Although I would never cheat in any kind of poker, I do not like the precident this sets, of people under the same roof playing at the same time. That is why I have resisted having two account on any site. I'm giving in this one time, just due to the confusion factor, but you will not see Glenn in the PJK tourneys.

PJK Tourney Polls

Please answer each question in the comments section. Thanks!

1) What day would you like to play the PJK Tourney?

2) What time (ET) best suits your schedule for the tourney?

3) Would you like to have a PJK tourney weekly/bi-weekly/monthly/other?

4) What is your favorite game for the most regularly schedule PJK tourney?

5) Would you be willing to play other games, if scheduled?

6) If you could change anything about the PJK tourneys, what would it be?

PJK II, Sunday, April 4, 2004

A great time was had by all! Since three of my guest celebs postponed on me, Roy graciously agreed to play again, and play he did! Congrats to the final four finishers!

Tournament Results

Place	Nickname	Win Amount
1	stinkypant	$228.00
2	RoyCooke	$114.00
3	RicksCafe	$68.40
4	JsonHoldEm	$45.60
5	gpoker	$0.00
6	hdouble	$0.00
7	DOMIT/Felicia	$0.00
8	Paulburbon	$0.00
9	PaulyMcG	$0.00
10	minorthird	$0.00
11	DontPokeMe	$0.00
12	shftleft	$0.00
13	Mckormick	$0.00
14	dbGrinder	$0.00
15	tpfelt	$0.00
16	Mean_Gene	$0.00
17	chrisdhal	$0.00
18	whiskytown	$0.00
19	_chainsaw_	$0.00
20	StoneKillr	$0.00
21	AlCantHang	$0.00
22	EOS	$0.00
23	boygza	$0.00
24	MaudieB	$0.00

Planet PJK Tourney

It's almost kick-off time. If you're not busy, and have no life (like me), let's meet in the tourney early and trash talk each other.

Who will bust out first?

Who will fall against the hammer?

Will my guest celeb show or not?

How many hecklers will we have this week?

Who will whine the most about their bad beat?

Will Scott eliminate all of us with his chainsaw?

Where: Planet Poker

When: Sunday, April 4, 2004

Time: 9:00 pm EDT

What: NLHE

--------------------------------------------

Time is ticking away. Our tournament starts in just 1.5 hours! Be at Planet at 9pm EDT/6pm PDT. Please follow the navigational instructions written in PJK Musings in order to take your seat at Planet.

If you do NOT see the "Withdraw" button on our tourney page, please call support at:

1-866-424-2155 (U.S. and Canada Toll-Free)

+011-5999-433-8848 (International)

DOMIT aka Felicia--Registered

MaudieB--Registered

tpfelt--Registered

hdouble--Registered

Paulburbon--Registered

Decker aka Lucas67--Not Registered

Hashimoto aka gpoker--Registered

Mean Gene--Registered

Dave aka DontPokeMe--Registered

Al aka AlCantHang--Registered

Pauly aka PaulyMcG--Registered

Scott aka TheChainsaw (fat guy)--Registered

Shift Left aka ShftLeft--Registered

Ryan aka AntiFuse--Registered

Joseph aka (EOS)--Registered

Jason (Odyssey)--Registered

Gosain aka ChefCombo--Not registered

CJ--not registered

Chad Atkins aka Cardplayer--not registered

Charles aka Ugarte--not registered

Chris Halverson--Registered

DP aka Internet Grinder--Registered

Dana aka Shanamouse--not registered

Daryl aka McKormick--Registered

Icey aka Iceyburnz--not Registered

Iggy--not registered

Jason aka MinorThird--registered

Jeremy aka LoveCasinoWar--not registered

Liquid Swords--not registered

Nick aka DogsPoker--Registered

Penguin--not registered

Rick Blaine aka RicksCafe--Registered

Grubby aka Nevins--Registered

Whiskeytown--Registered

StoneKllr--Registered

boy genius--Registered

The tournament is listed at the tournament registration pages right now as: PJK Tourney (Private).

Players will see a withdraw button IF they're registered. Right now it is maxed out at 30 players, but Planet can add to that when they get all players.

------------------------------

When you log into Planet, there will be a Tournament tab in the lobby. Click that tab and look for our tourney (PJK Tourney). Highlight that line, then click the button to join the table. It will take a while to load up. Don't panic, let it sit for a while. Once the table comes up, you should see your name in one of the seats. Players who have not taken their seats will have a star in front of their name *. If you have a star, something is wrong, call Planet right away. You can feel free to chat (trash talk, lol) before the tourney begins. Try to find the celeb guest player.

Requesting hand histories is much easier on Planet than True or Choice. Simply click the link in the main lobby named Player's Area. When the webpage comes up, click Player's Toolset. Scroll down and request the hand history of the tourney. Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am.

Have a great time, everyone!