Blogger Cash: Most win, I lose

I got crushed in the $1/2 deep-stacked NL blogger cash game, but most of the players who filled two tables on Full Tilt won some money.

I was playing from a booth at a loud bar, Moe's & Joe's, in Atlanta. I think it would be fair to say that the beer helped loosen me up.

Kuro, who was sitting across from me at the bar, recounted our big confrontations. I got it in really good once (dominating top pair) and really bad once (under two pair vs. trips). We know each other's styles pretty well, which means we'll get into a few confrontations.

I donked it up and lost. So it goes. Thanks for everyone who turned out to play, and I hope everyone had fun.

What's important to me now is that I get back on my game. I've been farting around at the tables throughout my vacation, and it's starting to hurt a bit. Vacation is great, and I feel pretty relaxed despite my recent questionable play. But now I'm going to bear down and focus rather than play the loosey-goosey style that leads to me spewing too many chips.

One problem I've found in my game is that I've been trying to play with standard betting patterns depending on flop textures. Instead, I should be tailoring my plays more based on my reads in specific situations.

Back to work!

Blogger Cash Game is so on

Let's play a 1/2 no-limit hold'em deep-stacked blogger cash game on Wednesday during the Mook!


We have a great lineup of solid cash and tourney players who have already shown interest: Subzero, Mike Maloney, cmitch, RecessRampage, Kuro, Bone Daddy, twoblackaces and the spritpot crew.

Either contact me around 10 p.m. EDT on Yahoo IM (smizmiatch) as we decide what table to play on, or search for my screen name on Full Tilt (also smizmiatch).

Everyone is welcome to play. Good luck!

BHMGII: Return of Cash

The Blogger Hard Money game found its stride when we moved to a $0.75/1.5 deep stack table with $300 maximum buy-ins.

We got four blogger for the $2.5/5 game -- Fuel55, Percentile Doom, Fishiswa and I -- before we switched it up.

Then many others joined in, including iam23skidoo, hoyazo, twoblackaces, bayne, columbo, kajagugu, chitwood, rake feeder, pirate lawyer, astin and weak player.

I'm not sure who the big winner was overall, but I doubled up early at the 2.5/5 table when a non-blogger shoved the river into my nut flush. That was easy. I also remember seeing bayne with a decent stack later on.

The game was still going after more than five hours, at which point I had to leave after playing way too much poker today.

I enjoy having a blogger cash game because it gives players an opportunity to sit down like they would at a home game with friends, donking around and trying to take each others' chips. I hope everyone had a good time.

Fishiswa and I got into a pot in which he pulled a successful river all-in bluff against my flopped flush. I'm still kicking myself for checking the turn:

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 4: Fuel55 ($1,320) -
Seat 5: locklear ($1,031.40) -
Seat 6: Fishiswa ($1,024.15) -
Seat 8: smizmiatch ($2,242.45)


PRE-FLOP:

locklear posts small blind $2.50
Fishiswa posts BIG blind $5
Dealt To: smizmiatch


RAISE smizmiatch ($15)
FOLD Fuel55
FOLD locklear
CALL Fishiswa ($10)


FLOP:

Pot: $32.5


CHECK Fishiswa
BET smizmiatch ($25) (Let's start building a pot)
CALL Fishiswa ($25)


TURN:

Pot: $82.5


CHECK Fishiswa
CHECK smizmiatch (I have the nuts! I really should have bet it here, especially given the deep stacks and the need to put more money in the middle while I was sure I had the best hand. I didn't bet though, instead opting to try for a river value play. So bad.)


RIVER:

Pot: $82.5


BET Fishiswa ($82.50) (Great!)
RAISE smizmiatch ($165) (Minraise to get value from a broader range.)
RAISE Fishiswa ($984.15) (Wow. There was $247 in the pot, and now I needed to call about $700 more. What a disaster. Fishiswa and I had been chatting earlier, and he told me he didn't have much money in his Full Tilt account. I didn't think it likely that he would make such a large bluff with most of his FT bankroll on the line. Also, since he was in the big blind, he could have had a wide variety of full houses that got there on the river.)
FOLD smizmiatch (Can't make the call. I probably would have called if we were playing for only 100 BB stacks)
UNCALLED Fishiswa ($819.15)
Fishiswa:


Fishiswa collected $410.5 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $412 Rake: $2

Final Board:


Seat 4: Fuel55 button didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 5: locklear small blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-2.5)
Seat 6: Fishiswa big blind collected 410.50 - Net Gain/Loss: ($205.5)

Seat 8: smizmiatch folded on the River - Net Gain/Loss: ($-205)


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Thanks to everyone for playing. Let's do it again early next month.

Blogger $2.5/5 NL Cash Game!

Let's play a blogger cash game Wednesday during the Mookie!

Sorry for the short notice, but I only recently learned I would be available Wednesday. I hope at least a few people are able to make it out.

I've changed the format from last time. The game will now be $2.5/5 NL deep stacks, which allows a lot of room for play while offering stakes that many bloggers might be used to playing at a casino. That means a $500 minimum buy-in and $1,000 maximum buy-in. I encourage everyone to turn out.

In the first Blogger Hard Money Game, Weak Player was the big winner as he accumulated a gigantic $4,000 stack. Waffles, Fuel55, Bone_Daddy84, Rake Feeder, Cmitch, RecessRampage and Poker Grind also played. I think everyone enjoyed the competition and the big pots. And a few people (myself included) liked the profits!

To join, either contact me through Yahoo! chat (smizmiatch) or search for my Full Tilt screenname (smizmiatch) and jump in.

I've wanted to make this a monthly event, but it's been tough because of my schedule. So if there's enough interest, maybe someone else can share organizing duties with me in the future.

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In last night's cash game play, I had AK on a Kd5c7c flop cracked by presto after I had reraised to $100 preflop in a 5/10 game with 100 BB stacks.

When calling my raise to $100, pocket fives will have a very difficult time making money in the long run. My opponent will only hit his set about one in eight times, so he would need to get paid off eight times more than the amount he has to call to justify it. In this case, he had initially raised to $30 and had to call $70 more. He needed to earn about $560 on average.

I don't believe my opponent will get paid off enough to make that call worthwhile. With my AK, I would have to both hit one of my cards, he would have to hit his set and I would have to stay in. I could write out a lot of math about various outcomes, but I'll leave that to you if you don't believe me:

Calling 3-bets preflop with low pocket pairs is not profitable if you have to count on hitting a set to win the pot.

I knew that when my opponent called my reraise. The question was, did my opponent know he was making a poor play?

If he knew what he was doing, he probably wouldn't have made the call with a low pocket pair and I could have confidently bet my hand, knowing my opponent didn't have a set. If he didn't know what he was doing, it's much more likely he was trying to hit hard and stack me.

I could have gotten away from the hand against either type of player. But even when I pay off my opponent, he'll probably lose money in the long run calling 3-bets with low pocket pairs in hopes that he'll hit.

Thanks BDR

I was remiss in failing to praise BuddyDank Radio for their fantastic broadcast during the Blogger Hard Money Game, the Mookie and FTOPS.

Thanks to BuddyDank, Instant Tragedy and whoever else was involved for putting on a great show.

Listening to them commentate, discuss hands and mess around made the evening a lot more fun. I especially liked it when they followed Waffles' progress as he tried to beat MiamiDon's over/under for how long he would survive in the game. Waffles beat the line of 1:08 by about three minutes.

Thanks again, and I hope you guys keep up the broadcast during blogger events..

Blogger Cash

The blogger 4/8 NL deepstack game featured monsters, coolers and bluffs. Several bloggers won money, including Weak Player, who was the big winner with a stack over $4,000 by the time he was through.

The company was great, everyone tried to bring their A games and I had a lot of fun. It gets a little tense playing for not insignificant amounts of money against people who have as good of a chance of seeing through you as you have of them. I don't get that kind of rush playing against no-name opponents.

In addition to Weak Player, Waffles, Fuel55, Bone_Daddy84, Rake Feeder, Cmitch, RecessRampage, Poker Grind and I put some money on the table.

Waffles generated the most action early on, and he did well until he got his shortstack committed preflop and then pushed his 77 into Rake Feeder's AQ on an Ace-high flop.

Weak Player won the largest pots of the night when he flopped a set of 2s against Bone Daddy's pocket Aces. He also flopped a set of Queens against a set of Eights against a non-blogger. Those pots were each worth about $2,400.



My favorite hand of the night came when Waffles and Fuel both flopped flushes, with Waffles' nut flush taking down a $1,137 pot.



Bone Daddy also hit it hard when his KK got in against AK on a K-high flop.



I made money in two medium-sized pots. One came when Poker Grind was shortstacked and pushed his flush draw on the turn into my pair of 8s. Then against Rake Feeder, I called his small blind raise with QT and flopped two pair. He bet pot, I raised, he reraised, and then he folded to my all-in bet. He said he had AQ.

I came out ahead for the night about $900 at the blogger table, and $200 overall after you deduct my stake in Waffles. Even though it didn't pay off this time, he was a worthy investment because he added a lot of life to the game. And I won anyway, so screw it.

If anyone wants me to e-mail or post other hand histories, let me know.

As the game wound down, we talked about when we can have another Blogger Hard Money Game again. A few people suggested moving the stakes to the 2.5/5 deepstack tables. Those limits will appeal to more people while still leaving plenty of room for big wins. We should do this at least once a month as long as enough people want to play.

GG!