What I'm Reading

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Bottle Up And Explode!

I've been playing a lot the past few days. I've played almost 5,000 hands this week, and am stuck a decent amount. I took some brutal beats, so while trying to shrug those off (two of them basically put me on fucking life tilt) I've been playing lower on Full Tilt and trying to hone my multi-tabling technique. I've played about 3,000 or so hands so far while playing six tables at a time, and so far it seems like adding the 3rd and 4th tables were a hell of a lot harder than adding the 5th and 6th. I doubt I could ever add more than this, though; the alarm sound of the game waiting for me is really grating to me. Also, this is definitely skewed because I've been playing lower, against worse opponents, and playing late at night a lot (where the table averages are pretty much all 38/7).

I played a couple MTTs this week, and final tabled one yesterday.



I came in 8th out of 245, which was really disappointing because I was chip-leader three hands prior to my bustout. Lost a race, ran into a set and was bounced. I felt like I played about as good as I could though and until the last orbit, the cards definitely fell the right way for me. One thing I was proud of was that until the last hand, I was only all-in for my tournament life once, where I jammed with 66 on a 344 board and had some goof-ball with AJ call me. I think I only played 2 other all in pots for a significant amount of my stack up until the final table. For the most part, I just picked spots pretty well, stole the blinds a lot and got the occasional gift.

This was the only big "move" I made the entire tournament.

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t500/t1000
(Ante: t125)
7 players
Converter


Stack sizes:
UTG: t7530
UTG+1: t38629
Hero: t40009
CO: t34341
Button: t13310
SB: t17134
BB: t43870


Pre-flop: (7 players) Hero is MP1 with Jh Ac
2 folds, Hero raises to t2900, 3 folds, BB calls t1900 (pot was t5275).


Flop: 2h 8c 7s (t7175, 2 players)
BB bets t2000, Hero raises to t7500, BB calls t5500 (pot was t16675).


Turn: 6s (t22175, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t13000, BB folds.
Uncalled bets: t13000 returned to Hero.


Results:
Final pot: t22175

Not THAT huge a move, but it was for a lot of chips and propelled me to a pretty sizable chip lead at the time. (By the way, the BB in this hand ended up busting me, and honestly he was IMO by far the weakest player at the final table.) At this point in the tournament, the BB and I had played a decent amount against each other and I'd stolen a lot of his limps earlier (he limped and flat-called a lot pre). His lead out seemed pretty weak and hesitant to me, so I raised him fully expecting to take it down. His call of the raise seemed really odd to me-- I'd seen him stack someone with a set and he'd played it much differently and I think with a set he'd have check-called the flop.

Anyways, at this point, I'm thinking he has something like 89, A8, or maybe 9T or A7. The six rolls off on the turn and hits a couple of those hands in scary ways (I'm pretty sure he stacks off here with TP with an OESD if he has 89). He checks and I took a pretty small stab. Truax was watching me play and commented that he thought it was too small, but I liked it for three reasons:

1) It sort of sells a "big hand" to the opponent. Not necessarily always true, and this is definitely the weakest of the three reasons.
2) I don't think the bet size really made a difference to this opponent. I honestly had very little respect for how he was playing and I think a bet of only a little over half the pot accomplishes the same as a 3/4 of pot-sized bet vs. this guy.
3) If he happened to have a hand he wanted to play (I think he'd fold the A8/A7 but probably check-raise all in with the straight or 89) I wouldn't be losing THAT much and I'd still be in okay shape relative to the blinds (with an M of ~7). I'd definitely be hurting, but I think the difference between having 12k and 16k if he jammed wasn't worth risking bluffing an extra 4k at the pot to sell the bluff more.

It's so fun to go deep in a tournament, but I don't think I've ever felt content after busting out of a MTT. I might need to start playing them more so that I can win one.

In poker news, my friend Josh/Mag has an article featured on PocketFives right now, which is awesome. Josh and Zai are also both in the top 20 of this month's leaderboard. It's really gross what these guys are doing to people online right now.

All for now, later.

2 comments:

Nik Santi said...

Hey Nick

Anonymous said...

IT IS TIME TO ELIMINATE ISLAM
by Joel Phillips
publisher: www.religiousfreedomwatch.org
owner: American Coast Title www.actfortitle.com

Just watching the news from London is a reminder that we’re living in an age of terrorism. And, sad to say, almost all terrorism has something to do with Islam and Muslims, you just won’t find much of it that is not in some way connected.

Just look at a few:

First World Trade Center Attack: a blind Egyptian guy was behind it. No one contests it.

Oklahoma City: don’t forget that McVeigh served in the first Gulf War. There is good reason to think he was recruited by jihadists in Iraq who were active at the time.

9/11: Islamic suicide extremists, forget the other theories. They were Taliban zealots hoping for 172 virgins and palaces in Islamic heaven.

Spanish train bombs: more Jihad extremists, basically the same bunch as the 9/11.

London train bombs: not the same 9/11 and Spain guys, but more British Muslims from Pakistan.

Virginia Tech: This one is so sad. Psychiatry started Cho out. Then Islamic recruiters told Cho he would get infinite sex in Muslim heaven from the 172 virgins so he converted. By trying to destroy Virginia Tech he thought he was attacking Bush’s aggression in Afghanistan.

London night club bombs: Good for the Brit cops, they have caught some of the guys and it is more of these Pakistan guys and doctors at that, some of them were even psychiatrists. Maybe it is time to have a serious think about what to do about Pakistan. Mixing up Islam, Muslims, psychiatry and Pakistan is a recipe for mass murder and terrorism. Trust me on this one.

It is no accident or coincidence the bigots who oppose religious freedom are inspired by Islamic thought.

Just look at some of the fine people on www.religiousfreedomwatch.org. EVERY SINGLE PERSON on there is a zealot, bigot or extremist and you will find that most of them have extensive criminal records. Take a look at these criminal records and you will find the influence of Islam.

Charlotte Kates: this young woman is a card-carrying member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. They are kind of the poster child for Muslim terrorists and an inspiration to Islamic murderers all over the world. What is her problem?

Peter Alexander: this man makes hate films. He is also building some kind of an amusement park in the Arab Gulf. Is is clearly doing the bidding of Islamist extremist jihad promoting masters all the way around.

Patricia Greenway: this woman is Alexander’s business partner and lover. She likes to live the high life and Arab money helps out there. Word in Ybor City is that she has her eye on an Enzo.

Kristi Wachter: she puts out a daily hate newsletter. She has paid for the theft of materials from churches. She says she used to run a record company but how much money could it make? It seems to me she is getting her money from bin Laden and his friends.

David Touretzky: don’t be fooled. This man is not a mouse brain researcher, he is a bomb expert. Who is really paying for his research? Could it be the same bomb makers loose in Iraq?

Keith Henson: first, don’t forget that but for www.religiousfreedomwatch.org this man would still be on the loose. He’s not just a bomb expert but a proved bomb maker. And who wants to pay for bombs? Jihad extremists! Who is paying for him to be able to buy toothpaste in jail? Could it be a guy called Osama?

Tory Bezazian: she walked away from her husband of many years to engage in hate activities. Where does she get money? The answer is Islam. She is a directly funded agent of the Los Angeles Koranic Council.

Andreas Heldal-Lund: the man is proud to support Lars Gule who was behind bombings in the Middle East. That sort of speaks for itself now doesn’t it?

As to the site, www.religiousfreedomwatch.org, it is paid for 100% by my company, American Coast Title. I am one of the owners. The other two owners, Frank Berriz and Linda Blood are 100% behind what I am doing as is our parent underwriter Stewart Title. We also get pretty good support from our employees although it would be illegal of me to impose my political beliefs on them.

Does it surprise you that I am being attacked by Indonesians? Not a coincidence that Indonesia is an Islamic country. The company is willing to pay a nice reward to the person who will stand up and help me stop them. Please look at my site for details.

Speaking of my employees, props to Vivian Swerdloff. Talk about a family tradition! Both she and her husband Robert are insurance professionals in every sense of the word. Chatsworth is a better place to live because of them. Vivian has stood front and center when zealots and bigots went on the assault. She did this not because she was required to as part of her employment duties at American Coast Title but simply because she believes that if people don’t stand up we’ll be conquered by these extremists and forced to do as they insist.

Expect without doubt a lot of trouble in Glendale. That’s where American Coast Title is located as well as a dense population of Armenians. The Armenians don’t like Arab Muslims so the area is getting very tense as the clock ticks down for Islamic terrorism.

So I am calling for the total elimination of Islam. Many other religious choices are available to those currently in Islam. Islam must go and no Muslim can be allowed to remain anywhere in the world.

All Mosques must either be destroyed or made into something else. The other day we did a title for one that was converted into a shopping center, now that’s a good use for one!

All copies of the Koran must be rounded up and burned or otherwise destroyed. If libraries insist on keeping them for historical reasons they have to be under lock and key and they have to post a guard to make sure no one copies them.

Conversion to another validated religion or acceptance of atheism are the only options I see. No other religion is associated with state sponsored terror as documented by the US State Department Report on Terrorism.

One thing that has to happen after is that women have to wear normal clothes. No more of these Islamic things. I mean local clothes are fine and kind of cute but no symbol of Islam can remain as it will just get cause restimulation of what started out as the worship of a giant magnetic stone by savage nomads. So get rid of all those crescent moons and so on!

This is a strong statement but it is time to end these attacks with bombs full of nails and gas. No other group does this. It is all and always back to Islam, Muslims, the Koran and groups like the Taliban and various sleeper cells.

Stand up with me on this one. Stand tall with me against Muslims who kill in the name of jihad and Islam and the false words of the Koran hoping for 172 virgins in a palace. Stand shoulder to shoulder with me to stop the next bunch of suicidal bigots and zealots from burning down your city.

Proud to be an American and a Scientologist

Joel Phillips