FCPC

Straights on paired boards are bad

2010-04-29T22:38:00.000-07:00

Don't do it folks!

Playoff Prediction

2010-04-29T22:27:00.001-07:00

I say Canucks in 6...maybe 7

what about you??

Penny PLO exploits

2010-04-29T22:20:00.001-07:00

too bad for this poor guy

Solid Gold!

2010-02-28T15:42:00.000-08:00

I'm so happy!

Well done Team Canada

Golf and Poker Aug 15

2009-08-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

the FCPC executive committee (me) has organized a morning golf and afternoon/evening poker extravaganza for August 15, 2009.

as things stand we have 16 people for golf and almost as many confirmed for the megahugestack poker tourney to follow. JV set the structure to allow for starting stacks of $1,000,000...sweet!

golf will be played at the spectacular Langara golf course. Built in 1926 by the Canadian Pacific Railway, the course was redesigned by Canadian Architect Thomas McBroom and now features top notch greens, well protected by bunkers. (not good news for shitty players)

The large rolling greens make scoring a challenge and with its narrow fairways, accuracy off the tee is paramount. The contoured, tree-lined fairways are easy to walk and make this challenging par 71 course appealing to players of all levels.

Groups:

Simon, Eman, 240 and Nick

Milly, Frenchie, JV, Matt

Oliver, Dave, Rob, Keith

Phil, Ron, Bob, John

Golf kicks off at 8am, poker ($60) will begin around 3pm!

Got a New TV Yesterday

2009-07-08T00:32:00.001-07:00

It's pretty sweet!

Super Stack-A-Thon!

2009-05-03T13:01:00.001-07:00

This past Friday we started a game with 60 minute blinds and starting stacks of 250,000. The action pre-flop was Pot-Limit while the post flop play reverted to our normal No-Limit game.

Originally, the idea was to get 10 players to play and have a $1000 first place prize, but we never quite got there. We did have 9 at one point but a Fleetwood Mac concert commitment and a late dropout put us at 7 players.

Simon, Grant, Bill, John, Kent, Michael and Bob all ponied up $200 for the game. We planned on playing 5 levels during the first day of play and next week we will pick up action 6 handed (yes, we lost one player). If all goes according to plan we will have a third day of playing on May 15th where we should be able to declare a winner.

2 payouts of $900 and $470 for this game.

Starting at 100-200 and 60 minute blinds there would obviously be many players seeing as many flops as possible. Who is going to fold to a raise to 800 with 250k in front of him??

Here is what happened to me during "day 1":

Got off to a good start stealing a few pots, making a few hands when i got tangled up with Bill. This was my biggest bluff of the day...

I raised with 8h9h from EP and Bill called from the BB with some kind of Bill hand.

The flop came out K x x. Bill checked so i made a bet and of course Bill called after hitting second pair.

Turn was something that didn't help me at all, Bill check-called me again. i remember thinking he either had a 4-flush or a weak pair. If he had a King i knew he was going to call me down.

River bricked for me again and Bill checked. I usually will check here if i think he is going to call but if he had 2nd pair i was done. A busted draw probably had me beat so i bet out 50,000 into the pot of about 30,000. He folded after flashing 2nd pair.

Because it was Bill i showed the table my bluff. Bill is fun to bluff but it's a dangerous play to make too because of his ability to think his hand is always good and call. Hence, the nickname "Caller Bill"

Scoreboard, Simon: 1 - Bill: 0

Later, I lost a pretty massive hand given the blinds (200-400) to Kent...

I call a raise to 1,200 from the button with 66. Kent, Michael, John and I see a flop of 3-T-6.
It checks to Kent who fires out 3,000, I call and I think John calls too
Turn is a 2 or 3 and puts 3 hearts out there. Kent bets 6,000 and I pump it up to 26,000, John folds.

The interesting part of this hand starts because i figured that Kent had an overpair and if he had KK or AA or QQ he could have the heart. When he looked at his cards and called it kinda reassured me this is what he had.

Now, the river brings a black brick and Kent now comes out betting 50,000. WTF is this!?!? Helllooooooo Kent, i have a set fag! You have an overpair and i know you are bluffing me you retard. But wait, maybe Kent is trying to push me out with his overpair and missed flush draw. The only hand i can think of that beats me here is the flush but i have already discounted that on the turn when he acted the way he did. I think he played this hand extremely well because if he had a flush he would have re-raise me on the turn, right? That's what he usually would do. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Well, I called and he turned over his cards one by one and the first one he turned over was the Ace of hearts and I knew he had me. He had Ah5h.

This is when John starts berating me, "What the fuck did you think he had? He cant have any other hand there!" blah blah blah. I suppose I could have folded but i'm not that good i guess. Sets look too sexy to fold to Kent, if i fold that then he knows he can bluff me and i have too much pride for that. BLUFF AWAY EVERYONE I WILL CALL YOU DOWN! I am the King of hero-calls so watch out when you play vs me!!!

That lost hand took me from ~300k to under a starting stack, close to 200,000. And worse, I had the feeling that this was the hand that would make me play looser, crazier and of course, worse. That's what usually happens when i lose a big hand like this in big tournies, I kinda lose concentration and try to win a big pot right away to right the ship. It isn't a very good strategy to take, believe me.

It wasn't long after that Kent made another good play.

On a flop of 4-7-8 Bill called a bet from Kent and we saw a turn J. Kent fires again but now Bill raises it up. After some considerable time thinking Kent folds 56 face up. Bill gives Kent some kudos and shows T9 for the turned nutzzzzzz! uh-oh, Kent found his 'A' game and looks to be playing well...who is this new guy?

When my stack dropped to somewhere around 150k i looked down at KK either in the cutoff or the button and I re-raised from 1,200 to 8,000. Michael called as did 1 or 2 others.

The flop came out 4-7-Q and Michael checked from the BB. I bet 25,000, John folded but now Michael jacks it up 40,000 more...fcuk! now I am pretty much faced with a fold or shove situation because with ~75,000 behind after i call the raise i expect he will call if I jam it. So, i start to think about wtf he could have. There are two diamonds out there so 56dd is the only draw he could have. He could have played AA weird but it's probably not what he has. 44 or 77 seem to be glaring at me given the way the hand was played. I don't think AQ or any other 1 pair hand goes crazy like this so I'm kinda stuck on the set thing. He did check-raise me after all!

So i folded.

Later I find out he had AQ...fcuk! I'm short stacked even worse now but i still have ~115,000.

We get into the final level of the night (500 -1,000) and i get a preeeeeemium hand in the BB. I look at pocket 7s and called a raise from Bob in the SB.

Flop is 3-7-3...ka-ching!
I almost bet out here thinking if anyone came in with a 3 i can double up but chose to check.
The turn brought a card i thought i could get paid a bit with..Ac
Bob fires out 12,000 and i call because if he has AK or AQ i can get paid more later. it was nice to see Bill also call from UTG
The river delivered a 3rd club for a board of 3-7-3-A-x.

Now i bet 25,000 and Bill called, Bob folded kinda quick so if he had an Ace he didn't want to get involved with it. I showed my boat and Bill had river a flush with the T2 of clubs. Again, John uses this opportunity to vent at Bill for:

1. limping UTG with T2
2. calling a raise with T2
3. chasing a flush with T2 on a paired board
4. paying me off with T2
5. being a calling station with T2

Standard John commentary when he isn't on the losing end of the pot. "you play goot!" he says.

John would get his later!

As we neared the end of the level and the end of day 1, Bill, John, Grant and I were all under the starting stack of 250k. Michael was well over and Kent was hovering around even. That was about to change when the final hand of the night came...

I believe John raised from MP and Kent called from the SB or BB. Grant came along for the party too.
3 players saw a Q-T-2 flop. Kent checked, Grant bet 6,000 and John raised to about 26,000. Kent re-raised to 50,000 and Grant hit the eject button and flew away.
John was clearly not himself when he muttered something to the effect we were all fishcakes, retards and idiots and Phil Hellmuthed his stack into the center. Kent called and showed bottom set. John had KQ and was left with runner runner to win. he did pick up a gutterball on the turn but it missed and that was it for Johnnie boy.

Chip counts at the end of Day 1:

Michael: 438,800
Kent: 388,400
Bob: 362,500
Grant: 210,900
Simon: 186,500
Bill: 163,900

Day 2 is next week at 7:05pm. You are welcome to come and watch the exciting action!

A $40 tourney will be going on at table 2 next week for those who want to get their fix.

FCPC Shenanigans on Video!

2009-04-21T18:22:00.000-07:00

priceless...

John V vs Bill

Super Duper Stack tonight!

2009-03-27T16:13:00.001-07:00

tonight we are running a Super Duper Stack but i will record it under the SuperStack games. 10 players, 1 table top, 3 paid

probably we will start with somewhere around 200,000 - 250,000 chips and quick 15 minute blinds.

prop sheets on the side and lotsa good times

here is my predicted order of finish:

1. Bill - overdue
2. Simon - lucksackery > simon's skill...lucksackery prevails
3. Eman - probably plays 5 hands all night
4. Fagelakis - standard bubble boy
5. JV - worst bad beat in the history of poker knocks him out
6. Milly - monied last week so he has had his run of good luck this year
7. Bob - gets no cards
8. Alex - roller coaster ride ends early
9. Julia - time for some SuperSeries payback!
10. Grant - just have a feeling he goes postal-worker crazy and flames out

SuperSeries Final Table is set!

2009-03-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

it was a dramatic way to finalize the Super 6 with many possibilities still available when Table 1 was 4 handed.

Table 2 had all but wrapped up when 240, Kerri Lee, Bob and Dave were battling it out on Table 1. during 4-handed play Dave was the victim of the mega-cooler of the night when his JJ ran into 240's KK. a K-high flop pretty much sealed the deal and the 3 points Dave got would not be enough.

at Table 2, i was the first to bow out when i jammed AJ UTG (obv i was shortstacked) and ran into a giddy Kent on the button who called with 22. the flop was paired but no help the rest of the way gave me 1 measly point, a total of 23 for the series. i really thought i needed 3pts to secure a spot and was very disappointed with the way i played. 1 pt was probably more than i should have gotten. having said that, my total of 23 meant Kerri Lee needed to win the table and get maximum points to tie me at 23 while Bob had to get a 2nd place finish (7pts) to get to 24.

with 10, 7 & 5 points available 3-handed i needed a perfect finish to make it.

Julia (35), Grant (32), JV (28), Hondro (28) & 240 (guaranteed at least 24) were already secured at the Final Table so only 1 seat remained. i really needed Bob to finish 3rd!

at 3-handed play, 240 was the biggest stack and got involved in the hand i was looking for...

Bob open raised UTG, Kerri Lee folded and 240 called with KdQd
flop came down, 9-T-J rainbow.......ka-ching!!
240 and Bob both check
turn: A
240 leads out for 8,000 into a pot of ~14,000
Bob raises all-in and sees the bad news when 240 insta-calls. Bob shows AQ needing a K for a chop
river: 4

Bob gets the 5 points i needed him to get giving him a total of 22 and guaranteeing my seat! needless to say i was pretty stoked about this result because i was kinda in the mindset after game 3 i had done enough to grab a seat. going 3pts - 1pt in my final 2 games was pretty poor and i felt i had blown it. having it end the way it did felt like such a relief, it was a weird feeling, like i had stolen something i already thought i had...weird.

with 6 seats secured it was still possible for Kerri Lee to earn a seat by winning the table and matching my 23 points. unfortunately, 240 was mega-stack when she got HU and although she doubled up twice she was unable to overcome the chip deficit and she got 7pts to finish at 20 for the series.

anyway, the Super 6 can be seen here

March 13, 2009 is not only the SuperSeries Final Table but also my brother's birthday so i think it's a foregone conclusion i am going to destroy someone HU...sorry everybody, but i always plan ahead like this.

payouts for this "freeroll" are:

1st: $700
2nd: $350
3rd: $250
4th: $200
5th: $150
6th: $100

JV and i have already mapped out 20 prop bets at $7 each for this game. hopefully i dont have to give him my winnings at the end of the night!

the finals standing for the series were:

Julia 35

Grant 32

240 29

Hondro 28

JV 28

Simon 23

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

Dave 22

Bob 22
Kerri Lee 20
Bill 17
Kent 16
Althalee 8

Game 4 in the books

2009-03-03T15:30:00.000-08:00

Game 4 has come and gone and we can see who is IN, who is OUT, who has a chance and who really needs to step it up! FCPC Site

IN: Julia (32) + Grant (27) + Hondro (26) <-- unless he blows it badly

HAS A GOOD CHANCE: Simon (22) + Dave (19) + 240 (19)

STEP YOUR GAME UP!: JV (18) + Bob (17) + Bill (15) + Kerri Lee (13)

OUT: Kent + Althalee

so many possibilties exist. Hondro could win the points race, Julia could finish third. Simon, Dave and 240 could all drop below the top 6 threshmark and Bill could qualify when most thought he was dead after game 3!

Kerri Lee needs a a miracle but those things happen all the time at the FCPC.

who is going to make it? make your vote in the poll on the right over there --------------->

pick the 3 people you think will join Julia, Grant and Hondro

see you friday

Game 3 and the Implications

2009-02-17T12:36:00.000-08:00

well, game 3 came and went. this game was pivotal to a number of players and while some of them did themselves proud, others didnt do enough to get themselves into a safe spot.

first though, let me talk briefly about the previous post i made regarding Dave. i didnt really mean it when i said "Dave is retarded". obviously he isnt but i got caught up in the banter the two of us had going all week and thought it would be funny to roast him in the blog. he took reasonably well but didnt like some of it either so i would like to say SORRY DAVE! i love you very much.

you're still a fag though

ok, on to the game. i was at a table with Dave, JV, Julia, Kent and 240. big game for Kent and 240 as they were both out of Final Table range and really needed big points to get back in it. first out was not quite what Kent had in mind coming into the night but again that's what he ended up with. like me, Kent got off to a decent start but bled chips away in a few pots and found himself short. i was eyeing his stack as i was around the same chip level with him...about 20 big bets remained for both of us. Julia eventually ended his night (i think) and the single point for Kent pretty much ends his dream of making the FT having 4pts in 3 games. its entirely possible to go runner-runner wins and still make it but that is going to be pretty tough to do.

JV was a happy as a pig in shit early on. he played KJ wonderfully against me in level 2 and took a large chunk of my chips. in the hand i held J2 in the BB and checked. JV had limped KJ UTG and we saw a flop of J24

i lead out 400, JV raises to 1600, i re-raise to 4000, JV calls
miracle M%^*^&F^&*^ King on the turn i check-call his bet of ~6000
Ace on the river and we both checked, he takes down the big pot

i am in the 25 BB range now and have to shut it down and wait for some hands.

as the night dragged on our table managed to make it all the way until around 10pm with no casualities. Kent and I were still short and JV was spewing his way down to our level. Kent busted out and then Julia took the boots to JV on this hand...

raise from Julia UTG, call from JV in the BB

flop is Q-6-4. JV immediately jams, which i think was a pretty good overbet of the pot.
Julia thinks it over and eventually calls showing TT
JV, in disgust, reveals 6x
no help for JV and he goes out in 5th collecting 2pts.

240 was next out but i forget how and by whom. all i know is that he needed at least 5 pts to crawl closer to the top 6, probably 7pts to feel better and 10 to get right back in it. i think he was not too thrilled about the 3pts he added to his total. 240 is 6pts out of the race to the FT and needs a couple big showings in game 4 and 5 to make it.

down to three, myself, Dave and Julia we played for quite a while. chips were moving around pretty well but a couple key hands changed the popular opinion of the outcome. i was the shortie with dave 2nd when i got involved in this 3way hand:

family pot we see a flop: 8-2-3
i have 85off but Dave leads out first. i jam and Julia calls! Dave folds his big Ace
Julia show 99 and im screwed.
turn is a magical 5!
river bricks for Julia and im in the mix again.

later i took a big chunk of Dave's stack when this hand came up:
i look at AhQh and raise it up. Dave re-pops from the BB and i jam, he calls
he shows AJ so im pretty happy about the situation.
flop comes out Jh-4h-3c...i have the Queen to hit and the nut flush draw to resuck on Dave
trun is a heart and i cant be caught, Dave is crippled. Happy Simon

JV goes on about me being a lucksack and how i hit every flush draw in the history of my fcpc career (or something like that). boo hoo!!

shortly after Dave busts out and im assured of 7pts and a big sigh of relief.

during the HU battle things were going back and forth nothing really separating us until i tried a bluff on Julia that didnt work. in a limped pot we saw a K-A-x flop. i tried bluffs on all the streets but was called down by a King and shipped 75% of my stack across the table

i managed to crawl back a decent amount when the last hand of the night came...

i have 8d5d and see a flop with 2 diamonds. i bet, Julia calls
turn helps neither of us and we both check.
river completes my flush and pairs the board.
i go all-in and she insta-calls with the nut flush!! motha-f6&*^)!!!!!!

flush over flush and im dunksi. oh well!

good game for me and Julia who now has 27pts, a big lead in the overall points race and a guaranteed spot at the Final Table. i see no scenario where she doesnt make it. now, can she win the top prize of $200 for winning the points race????? we'll see

next game is FEB 27 at 7:05pm sharp, see you then

The trash talk started Monday

2009-02-12T12:41:00.000-08:00

So Dave thinks he is hot shit and Dave thinks he is a poker god and Dave thinks he is going to take down my table this friday night...Dave is a retard.

Game #3 of the Super Series is tomorrow night and its a crucial game for many players. my table has 2 of those players, Kent and 240. these 2 guys must get at least 5 points, in my opinion, to set themselves up for a Final Table run. actually, Kent might need to win the table.

Bill, Hondro and Althalee are at the other table and they also need good shows or its hasta la vista baby! sure, they could all do mediocre and still go runner-runner wins to squeak in but really, its not going to be easy.

back to Dave though. this chump has a big mouth that he likes to run when he is "feeling it". obviously, this week he is feeling like the big dog because he cant stop running his gums about how he is going to turn the nuts on me and bust me out. he is so confident that he has agreed to the famous LLB with myself and JV. i dont think Dave realizes what he has gotten himself into.

its Dave's turn to crash and burn. he may have 12 points and he may think he has a shot at the title but the realists of the world see Dave's run for what it is, a fluke.

i hope this gets Dave's juice flowing!! Dave is going to be a very sad puppy friday night

My Table, Table 2

2009-02-01T23:35:00.000-08:00

i won this week, but it wasnt looking very promising at all during level 9, the 1200/2400 level

i had ~13,000tc during level 9 and it was time to get involved. i tried during level 8 to begin putting myself out there because my stack was about big enough to get peeps to fold. in level 9, the time was now!

i jammed preflop a few times to get the blinds and build up to ~20,000. JV had been raising light all night long and i was looking for an opportunity to go "Sylvestre Stallone" on him and it happened when i saw 99 after his pf raise. i jammed for about 16,000 more and he opted to fold. good fold for me as i did not want a call there.

later he button raised to 6100 and i called the extra 3300 with 66 in the BB. flop was JJ4 and i jammed ~23,000. i was planning a stop & go anyway and that flop is a pretty good one for it. he flashed a 4 before mucking. now i was beginning to accumulate chips and my stack was one that was not to be taken lightly.

i did have to put myself in a spot of trouble against Bob. we were 4 handed and i open jammed with KQ from UTG. Bob appeared interested in this and made the call, committing ~80% of his stack with AJ. certainly no arguing the call there but a lucky K on the turn gave me a new life. a crucial hand for me as 3 pts would not have done me much good after my miserable 2 pts in the opening game. Bob was crippled and i went to chip leader!

shortly after, i saw Bob all in and a call from 240 so i called also with 55. flop was K high. turn and river bricked for me and when 240 showed 33, Bob scooped the pot with AK. he was back in it.

JV had 49,000 when i was hovering near 12,000 earlier but at this point i had him covered. oddly enough i forget what i was holding when i busted his ass. i was happy to get the $10 Last Longer Bet we had and an extra $10 for busting him. the bet was for $10 but an extra $10 if either of us busted the other...spicy!!

3-handed we moved tables and cleaned up a bit when Bob myself and 240 restarted the game. first major confrontation was 240 and myself. he jammed from the SB with his KT and i looked down at A7. i said immediately "this one smells a little different 240" i wasnt convinced he had a better hand that me. why? well, you pick up things on people over 3-4 yrs playing with them and with that i went with my gut and called.

the board came out 3-T-A-brick-brick and i had 240 barely covered. a big hand for both of us as we both sucked balls in game #1 and needed big points.

heads up didnt last too long. i probably had a 3-2 chip lead on Bob but in the very first HU hand i saw two black Kings! i limped and Bob raised with his Ax. i immediate jammed the rest of my stack in. because i had Bob covered i think he wanted o pick a better spot so he folded. (incidentally, an Ace hit on the river after we ran it)

the fateful hand was again when i limped the special Ace from the button and Bob jammed...i called and saw his K7 vs my A9. no help for Bob anywhere and i was very relieved to find a way to scoop the huge 1o points.

next week i have 240 - Dave - Julia - Kent & JV at Table 1. i think i can steal a lot of dead pots next game and get off to a way better start than games 1 & 2.

peace out, see you FEB 13

2 are in trouble, 3 need a win

2009-02-01T10:34:00.000-08:00

Bill & Kent are in danger. 240, Althalee and Hondro need a big performance on Feb 13 to get back into the Final Table picture.

the standings (here) show that 7 of the 12 players have at least 10 points while the 5 mentioned above all are at 6pts or less. there are 3 games remaining and while anything can happen its going to be difficult to make up the difference. certainly if Bill or Kent is able to win game 3 then they vault into a much more comfortable spot...but still there is work to be done.

Julia holds top spot currently with 17 points and is looking very good at making the FT. speculation before the series began was that 23 points would be enough to make the final 6. if this holds true then Julia only needs 6 points in 3 games to make it.

the logjam from 2nd to 6th (13-13-12-12-12) shows how close this race to the top 6 will be. Kerri Lee has 10 points, just out of the top 6, but could easily make that up with a strong performance on Feb 13.

If Bill and Kent each win their table then so many more possibilities open up...that would be interesting!

if i can find time to recap the action from Game 2 Table 2 later ill post it.

i can say i busted JV and won the $10 LLB we had plus an extra $10 for busting him....its good not to be the fish

Super Series Game #1

2009-01-29T20:13:00.000-08:00

so, it finally started.

after one attempt at running this thing and having it implode on the first night we finally found 12 reliable, available and willing players to go for glory.

you can find out who is involved at the fcpc website but i will say who was at each table in order of finish:

table 1
JOHN
DAVE
HONDRO
ALTHALEE
KENT
240

table 2
GRANT
JULIA
BOB
KERRI LEE
SIMON
BILL

obviously i was at table 2 and i didnt do too well. i was on Bills left which was good because Bill started out playing ultra fast. he was raising >50% of the pots and winning most of them. they were small but Bill was establishing his image right away. unfortunately for him he eventually ran into bigger hands and he crashed and burned, out first. it will be interesting to see how he plays in game #2

myself, i was a bit like a roller coaster. i was up early, then i got involved in a hand i though i had locked up but...it wasnt to be

Kerri Lee raises, i limp-called with 77.
flop is a juicy Q-7-5
i check- call the 1000 cont bet.
turn 8
i check raise the 1000 bet to 3000. she re-raises to 7000. i look at the board and assume she has AA or KK (hoping not QQ) and i call.
river is a 3 and i check-call the 5000 bet

"i have a set" i say.
"me too" she says and shows 88
nice.

that hurt me quite a bit. we started with 30,000TC and i lost 14,000 in one hand in level 2!

i now decide that i can only get involved in a big pot if im willing to commit my stack. yes, its only level 2 but the table was aggressive and i hate the slow death of 400 here, 700 there until im down to critical. if i can play small pots thats fine but im prepared to get it all in if the situation warrants.

later i get in a hand vs Julia. i hadnt raised preflop in a long time and i chose to try to steal blinds with Kd9d, Julia calls from the SB with Ad3d

flop is KQJ, Julia leads out for 2000 and i jam for another ~4500. she hums and haws and decides to call
turn is 7d giving both of us a 4 flush
river bricks and i survive

IMO Julia made a pretty loose call but she did have the A or T to win and the turn gave her more outs. she had an opportunity to knock someone out for 4500 and she had the chips to spare. im glad she missed though!

very next hand i get KK in the BB. Bob opens for a raise and i chose to do someting different in this spot, i jammed my stack which was a massive overbet. i was hoping Bob would call thinking i was doing something fishy...he folded though.

Bill busted by now and i was still short stack with ~20,000 when i was busted by Julia.

i was UTG and limp-called her BB raise. i had Ac8c.
we saw a magical flop of As 7c 6c
Julia leads out for 1000 and i insta-raised to 4000. she called
turn 5s, she leads again for 4000 (i think) and i jammed with OESD and flush draw, she insta-called with AT.
i need help big time but the Jd is not what im looking for on the river...im out in 5th place at table 2...goddammit!!!!

even worse, John won table 1 and couldnt stop talking about how his place at the Final Table is all but guaranteed!! fish can win i guess

240 needs some poker luck, lets all say a prayer for my good friend. his AK went down to John's AQ when a Q hit the turn. 240 has the worst luck and runs worse than anyone at the fcpc, hands down.

see you at game #2

Bob Wins!

2009-01-12T16:55:00.000-08:00

Bob won the last game. Bardia found a way to snag 2nd. Frenchie roller-coastered his way to a 3rd place payday.

a record 16 players in 2009 showed up for this game.

next week we play the same game.

in 2 weeks....the FCPC Super Series begins. more to come on that.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

2008-12-24T19:05:00.001-08:00

4 on the river

2008-12-08T13:42:00.000-08:00

the night got off to bad start when i played the first hand, on the button, after a standard pf raise by JV. i had Js5s and the flop came Q47 with 2 spades. everyone checked to me so of course i tried to take the chips by betting.

JV, two to my right, raised it up. i dont recall the amounts but i knew i could make the call and score a lot more chips if i hit the flush. turn was an offsuit 3 giving me a few extra straight cards.
JV makes a significant bet here, around 5500, and i now really have to decide if the first hand is worth making a semi-loose call...i folded.

river was the 2s completing the flush had i gone that far. i certainly would have crippled John and the cries of "i hate this place!" would have be ringing throughout the room. that would have been sweet.

my time in this game was short as i was the 2nd one out but it wasnt without fireworks. the first hand vs JV was juicy and the next big pot vs Bill was juicier albeit with the same result, i lost it.

i raised with AsTs and got one caller in the BB, Bill. flop was T67. i was almost-min-check-raised by Bill but decided his short stack was worth getting all in so i jammed. Bill would min-check-raise with any Ten here so i figured i could be good. nope! he had Td6d
turn and river bricked for me and i lost a lot of my stack but was still around 11,000 of the original 30,000 with 300/600 blinds

i went out not too long afterwards when i jammed UTG with AJ and got a reluctant but gambling call from Jane with one of my favourite hands, 4h2h. an all club flop included a 4 but my Jc gave me a lot of outs. a Jack on the turn put me way ahead until the case 4 screwed me on the river (Kent said he folded the other 4). it was a funny way to lose and the table erupted with laughter. standard FCPC shenanigans at play .

Grant eventually took down the tourney while Jane and Kent chopped the 2nd place money and the final bounty (Kent) cash.

next week im thinking DEEPStack...watch out!

2008-12-03T17:57:00.001-08:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This PokerStars tournament is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 302655

SuperStack Aftermath

2008-11-24T09:30:00.000-08:00

3rd place isnt so bad...but it probably should have been a lot better.

i had almost half of the ~900,000 chips in play when we were 6 handed but went totally and completely card dead for the next hour or so. as much as i was getting shalacked from the rail for not playing aggressively enough i found it difficult to defend with hands i should be doubling down with nevermind re-raising or defending. in retrospect, i suppose its irrelevant what my cards are, i should just re-raise anyway because i am the bigstack, but the flipside is that i could lose more that way and i think i chose to coast into the money and let the smaller guys duke it out.

it didnt quite work out the way i thought it would.

John and Alex went down in blazes of glory when a truly awesome hand developed 6-handed

Andre (new guy, friend of Ryan) and his brother Will were the other players at this point with myself and Eman. Anyway here is how it went...

Andre limps UTG, Will folds, Eman folds, JV pops it up to 4xBB or so, Alex in the SB jams, i fold.
Andre then jams and JV does the same.

up and over:

Alex: 44
Andre: AA
JV: KK

Alex tries to squeeze but runs into 2 unfoldable hands.

flop is A-4-A, your standard flopped Quads.

Andre had the same stack as JV and Alex was covered by both so now we are down to 4 and Andre finds new life after treading water for a while.

this is where i go fold, fold, fold, fold fold, fold, fold.........fold, fold, fold, fold.......rail cheeses me........fold, fold, oh AK!!! raise.....fold, fold, fold.......

then im shortstack!

blinds are monstrous now 5,000/10,000 - 3,000ante

i win with A5 vs Andre's 33 and i quickly get into 2nd place. thats how volatile the hands were, you could win or lose a hand and vault to the chiplead without seeing the turn or fall down to critical.

Eman unfortunately was the bubble boy when he had to jam his final hand in vs Will's JJ.

3 handed i was doing ok until i saw Will rekuctantly call form the SB with 35o. i should have raised but i didnt with J9

flop was 3-J-3 and i figured i had the best hand and eventually went broke. he turned a boat too!

i collected $200 for 3rd. brothers Will and Andre split the remaining $1000

all in all a great game, good structure and the usual great banter from JV.

as far as my predictions go, we had 4 late joiners so im happy i was able to get 1/3 correct. Bill was first out after playing 110% of the flops at our table.

next SuperStack in 2009! see you then

SuperStack #3

2008-11-21T10:12:00.000-08:00

the time has arrived for the 3rd installment of our SuperStack series. this is the game totally engineered for this guy who always finds a way to crap the bed.

currently we only have 8 players involved but i have a sense we may get up to 10 by game time.

the SuperStack is our highest buy-in game usually of $150. however, for this game it's a $120 buy-in with $20 bounties on everyone just to spice it up a bit. blinds run at 40 minute intervals and as usual there will be plenty of time and chips to make plays without screwing yourself up.

$120 buy-in
40 minute blinds, starting at 100-200
75,000 starting stack

there should be no arguments about the setup, its designed to make you feel very comfortable.

so, who will make the money? always a tough thing to predict but nevertheless i will take a shot.

assuming we start with these 8 players: simon - jv - grant - bill - ryan - alt delete - bob - frenchie

money finishers: SIMON (of course) - BILL - JV

Simon - i cant go against myself in this field of spewers and donaters. ive figured out most of these chumps by now and i figure i can find a few spots to milk Bill and AltDelete and Frenchie and Grant and JV and maybe Bob. i expect no worse than 3rd

Bill - this is a bit of a gamble because he will either be first out or he'll get to the money. there is no middle ground with Bill as he proved once again last week. when he gets short he always seems to find a way to double up huge and get comfortable again. i think his lack of "simon knowledge" will be his undoing somewhere along the lines though. Bill likes to think he is "simon-smart" (like he can figure me out) but we all know otherwise, ill trap his ass so good he will have no choice but to pay the master off

JV - this is a total 649 ticket. im gambling hard here! this guy talks the talk but cant seem to walk the walk. this week i have a funny feeling he might just squeak in there. his recent form and style of spewage doesnt really lend itself to making money in poker but every blind squirrel finds a nut at some point...right?

good luck to everyone, this game is going to be FUN!

Results of Nov 14

2008-11-17T17:56:00.000-08:00

So, i predicted money finishes for myself, Bill and Jane. unfortunately, Jane bubbled in 4th but Bill and I did our part and grabbed 3rd and 1st respectively.

The Professor took a chop for 2nd ($160) and we were done at 12:15am.

A few hands of note:

a shortstacked Bill finds 99 in the BB and re-raises all-in vs Kerry Lee who happens to have opened the action with AA. before the flop is even dealt JV moves the chips towards Bill and says "Here you go Bill" assuming of course that Bill will find a way to stave off elimination

the flop comes: 3-6-9...standard

Bill survives and rides the roller coaster all the way to 3rd place.

I have 18BB left and jam KJss in the SB vs Bill who instacalls with A5 (the special Ace though)

flop: K-J-5 turn: Q river: blanks

whew, i survive!

not much else i can think of this late after the game. if you can think of any hands worth mentioning lemme know

Let's do a prediction

2008-11-14T17:16:00.000-08:00

tonight we have an 11 person game going on. its only $40 to enter with 10,000TC to start

here is the lineup:

* Simon - JV - Jane - Alex - Bill - Julia - Dave - KerryLee - Eman - The Professor - Grant *

top 3 (in any order):

Jane
Alex
Simon (of course)

i have a $20 bet with JV for the first person eliminated. if either of us is eliminated first then $20 changes hands

is the blog back?

a new post

2008-05-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

even though it has been a while since the last post, the games have continued to roll. my laptop is not a reliable place for me to log into blogger anymore so its a little harder to get posts up. my desktop computer works with everything fine but its ridiculously slow and not my first choice when i use the internet. having said that, i finally got to using the dinosaur for this post.

this week at the FCPC we have the good ole cash game returning. this is the 3rd time we've run this game and the previous 2 have both been very fun. the crew that has already confirmed looks to be a nice mix of players...im really looking forward to this game

next week, May 23rd we are introducing a new(ish) game to the FCPC. although we have run ONE PLO game in the past this PLO game is gonna be quite a bit donkier...its a rebuy!

$10 PLO tourney with $5 rebuys and an optional double addon for $10. i expect a single table group or this game but i also expect the rebuys to be retardedly high. i for one will probably break the record for rebuys or have a ridiculous stack by the addon break

i dont know which game i am more looking forward to?

the FCPC site will go through some renovations of the pictures page soon. many of the pics there are quite old and feature Fagelakis when he used to play. he now lives in Baltimore with Crazy D but hopefully those 2 greek boys will return for some live action this year...who knows.

one last note, my good friend 240 finally made it into the mney this past week. i reckon its been a year (or more) since he won at the FCPC. he has been close a number of times and i was absolutely delighted when the "sexy beast" cracked the top 3. probably he would have won the whole thing but the final 3 chose to do some kind of chop so we could bust open the cash game chips for a mini game. he is too nice to these chumps

see you friday!

Cash Game Extravaganza!

2008-04-27T13:11:00.000-07:00

first, a quote by a great man:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"You know, I realized how much I missed this place the past 2 weeks, I am happy to be back playing here."

John Veltheer
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

that pretty much confirms that all the stuff that spews from his mouth when he is playing with is is pure crap.

now, on to the game.

we had 14 players show up for our 2-table 7 handed cash game.

my table started with Bill, John, Eman, Sean, Joanne and Milner.
table #2 had Karl, Jane, Winston, Hondro, Hondro's friend, George and Julia.

here are some highlights from hands i saw at our table.

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

nothing of note was happening with until i got involved in a hand with Joanne and Milner. Joanne made a button raise to $4, Milly called in the SB and i did too in the BB.

flop was 5-3-2 rainbow

i had flopped top 2 pr with my standard 53 offsuit and saw Milly lead out at the pot for $15. now, with a button raise and both blinds completing it is usual for the blinds to be holding random suited panthers or small pockets. to see Michael lead out here did make me think he had a set or perhaps was betting a straight here to see what Joanne would do. i chose to just call the $15 because if Joanne had a big pair she would raise and i could then see what Michael would do.

Joanne did raise to $30 and in my head i knew she had an overpair, i thought JJ+. the scary part though was "what was Michael going to do?" usually in this spot i would expect him to reraise if he could beat 1pr so seeing him just call Joanne's raise gave me the feeling he did not flop a set or a straight. if Michael had raised i would have had a hard decision to make. since he didnt raise i chose to jam the rest of my stack in and pretty much tell them both i had a big hand

the pot had $12 preflop + $75 from Joanne, Milly and my flop bets. i called the $15 to make it $102 in the pot and my raise was $99 more.

Joanne tanked for about 45 seconds and decided to call. Milly folded what would have been the eventual winning hand.

turn was a 7
river was a 2

i knew the 2 pairing the board fcuked me hard and i probably had a look on my face like i just ate a sour lemon. Joanne said "53 no good anymore?" --- i tabled the 53 and she flipped over pocket Tens for the better 2 pair.

Milly folded QQ when Joanne called my raise

i had to hit the bank machine after this hand and as i was heading there i thought about how she could make that call. i know i want her to call but why would she? she had to know she was behind...right? whatever the case, i was broke and now had to try and get back to even.

i re-bought for $100.

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

a BIG pot developed between Bill and John

John makes a pf raise and Bill calls along with someone else. flop is Q high, 3 diamonds. Bill has flopped the 2 nut low flush baby with the 3d4d!

checked to Bill who fires out $25 or $30. John raises another $100, Bill jams, John calls.

in this game its not required to show your cards so when the river brings a 4th diamond John looks disgusted and asks "awww crap, do you have the Ad?" i assumed John had a hand like KK with the Kd and Bill got fcuked. i think Bill thought he was done too and showed the 4 flush. John's face did not appear to show any signs of relief when he saw Bill's hand so it was clear the flush was good. i dont know what John had but Bill raked in the pot and was sitting pretty!

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

later, i had run my $100 up to around ~$110 when Sean, Me and Bill got busy in another big pot

Sean raised to $3 preflop and pretty much everyone called. i called with 8d9d

flop came K high, 2 diamonds.

Sean bets out for $19 and i call, Bill calls

turn is a black Queen, all of us check.

now, at this point i figure Sean had something he didnt wanna risk more $$ with because he would protect AK here or AA...i thought the K scared him a bit. Bill on the other hand is impossible to put on a hand because he plays a WIDE variety of shit. more shit than me!

when the river brought the Td the whole table knew someone "got there"

my thoughts here was that my hand was good. but with Bill and Sean left to act after me i kinda felt i could represent i hand a very marginal hand i just wanted to show down...with the intention of calling any bluff/bet on the river. so i checked my flush

Bill bet $25.
Sean was next and after 30 seconds he jams his stack, another ~$125!

WTF is going in here?! i have the flush and i see a bet and a shove! "god dammit" im thinking, how can i possibly be good? then i realize Sean isnt shoving here when its obvious me and Bill were drawing to something. when the flush completes why is he jamming without the nuts?

i took about 2 minutes to think and decided i wasnt throwing in my last ~$75 kinda knowing im beat...i folded. Milly and Joanne saw my hand and my look of resignation when i tossed it away.

Bill folded and Sean showed Ad3d for the nuts...good fold daddy!

still, i was losing more money and i couldnt find a groove. i was worried i would blow this stack and be forced to sit out the rest of the night! i didnt want to do that

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

i borrowed $60 from Dr Fag and got my stack topped up a bit, enough to make plays and win a decent hand should i need to get it all in again.

the biggest cooler hand of this night award goes to Bill, check out this hand:

Sean raises to $31 (was this a mistake or not?) Bill calls from the SB with TT

heads-up:
flop is T-3-2 Bill has flopped the stone cold nuts baby!

Bill checks, Sean bets out small - $15, Bill calls

Bill could raise here but i like the call too. If Sean has an overpair the pot will still get juicy.

turn is a Queen

now, Bill fires out $30 or $35 ( i forget) Sean insta-jams! Bill insta-calls!

i stood up and asked Sean, "you made a set of Queens didnt you?" i asked this because i knew what Bill had preflop and knew Sean wouldnt jam with AA or KK here unless he was totally sure he had the best hand.

Sean shows QQ for a turned set
Bill shows TT for the flopped set

holy power cooler Batman, the pot was over $700!! that was nasty!

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

i will have more to come including a hand i got involved in vs Joanne and one vs Julia...and i won them both!

JGB, Pay them their money!

2008-04-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

Joanne $390
Grant $180
Bill $100

The same 3 who placed on April 4th place again this week. Joanne and Grant changed positions and Bill scooped 3rd place money once again.

Milner and I played a few $5 PLO games while waiting for the main event to end and we also played with Julia in a high stakes $10 tournament with THE WINNER TAKING ALL OF THE MONEY! that was a stressful game!

more to come when i have time and when i get the winner's picture of Joanne from Milner

Ladies Night

2008-04-12T00:28:00.000-07:00

We had 3 ladies take part in this version of the Mystery Bounty and all 3 made it to the end. Jane, Julia and Alt-Delete were playing 3-handed when i returned from my self imposed exile. Julia and Jane ousted the shortie in Althalee and went on a record, at least in the FCPC, 1 hour 15 minute heads-up marathon!

the two ladies were taking turns winning massive pots vs each other but neither could deliver the knockout blow until just before midnight. Julia had just survived being all in when her miracle 9 hit on the river when she doused Jane's hopes winning with KT vs Jane's Q8.

again this alternate room we have used had some magic remaining. on four occasions we have played in the room and every time we have a game there quads have shown up. its absolutey ridiculous that our games went on a year long run without seeing quads and now in the span of 6 weeks we have had at least 7 or 8 four-of-a-kind hands.

tonight it was Althalee's turn to make quad 6's vs Sean...again. Sean has been the victim of the quads at least 3 times...maybe 4 times.

final payouts:

Julia $260 + $15 bounty from Jane
Jane $120 +$30 bounty on Tom and $15 split bounty on herself

"White Spot" Grant, FREE SHAKES!!

2008-04-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

Grant said that if he won he would give everyone free shakes for life...so head on down to the White Spot at SW Marine and Oak to fill yourself up!

Unbelievably, Grant didnt get pocket 2s all night long so there was no "IM ALL IN BABY!" heard from him. What Grant did do was gather a healthy stack pretty early on and coast the rest of the way to take down his first DEEPStack title.

We used a modified structure for this event...Eitan's structure. personally i dont think i would use it again because even though we started with TC150,000 it was less chips in relation to the blinds than what we are accustomed to. starting with 150bb instead of 200bb was noticeable. 30 min levels did somewhat offset the difference in chips but the fact there was less room to play once you lost one big hand or 2 decent pots made it feel less like a DEEPStack.

We tried it and it wasnt bad but next time we'll go back to the usual stuff.

ok, on to the game. no big confrontations, no big setups nothing really happened until John and Joanne got busy in the 2nd or 3rd level.

Joanne raises it up with KK, John re-pops it with AK. After Joanne shoved John was obligated to call the difference but he did not hit the Ace so his big stack at the time was severly shortened. not long after John eeded to make a move and when "Ken Leeeeee" arrived John was more than willing to gamble (who wouldnt?). Unfortunately, Bill was right next door with a pair of Kens (KK) and hasta la vista baby! John was toast.

Eitan left next when his AT lost to Joanne's flopped flush with the 5d6d. Eitan had the Ad redraw but missed

Next one gone was Julia. earlier she had doubled Joanne up when she limp for 2000 or 3000 (i cant remember what the blinds were) and then called Joanne's all-in for another 65,000. Joanne tabled pocket 4s and Julia had A9. no help for Julia and her stack was crippled. she left in 9th when her A7 could not outdraw Bill's AK.

Jane was next on the chopping block when she put her faith in 8d9d vs Grants JJ. the Jacks would hold and Jane was flambayed in 8th.

Althalee aka "Alt+Delete" had amassed a very healthy stack early but lost a critical hand to "White Spot" Grant. on a K92 flop a series of bets, raises and then an ALL-IN from Alt+Delete put Grant in a position to call of all his chips. Grant thought it through and figured his KQ must be good and he made the call. Alt+Delete showed the KT for top pair-shittier kicker and it bricked for her the rest of the way to give Grant an absolutely huge amount of chips! not long after that she was crushed by Bill. her AT vs his AK = Althalee out in 7th

down to 6-handed play the blinds were eating away at the shorties, myself included.

Matt would be the first to succumb to these blinds when his A3 ran into Joanne's 56. somehow she won and Matt was politely asked to leave. this was his reaction:

Yours truly was next to go. i had TC102,000 with blinds at 5,000/10,000 and looked at 99. i jammed and Joanne quickly called with AK. a god-damned Ace on the turn was all she wrote for me and i had another out of the money finish ending up in 5th spot.

Bubble time! And of course 240 couldnt make it in. he never gets into the money and thats too bad because he is a nice big cuddly teddy bear. once again as well, "Ken Leeeee" was what 240 decided to run with but when Bill called and showed KJ the big cuddly teddy bear was looking for a little 7 love. unfortunately for him it did not arrive and out in 4th was 240.

now we are in the money!

Grant and Joanne were leading at this point (i think) and Bill would have to battle hard to oust them for the title. too bad for Bill he flopped top pair vs Grant on a Qxx board. Bill went All-In after a bet a raise and another raise. again Grant had to think about this call because he had limped in the SB with AA. he did call and Bill displayed Q3--> top pair no kicker. no help for Bill meant he secured $140 for third place and we were heads up!

it didnt take long to end it. rather than explain here is a picture of the hand.

Grant had 96...Joanne had 73...ALL-IN on the flop

(the flop starts on the right and the river is the card on the far left)

Grant hits the river 9 to win DEEPStack 14!

FREE SHAKES NEXT WEEK!!! (i like chocolate Mr Quail)

DEEPStack 14 Preview

2008-04-04T12:34:00.000-07:00

the ladies are in full effect tonight as 4 chicks will be playing in DS14. never before have we had so much estrogen in the game. will that lead to another female champion or will the power of man overwhelm and come on top again?

here is the lineup in order of predicted finish:

simon

joanne

bill

eitan

matt

john

jane

althalee

grant

julia

240

The Truth Hurts

2008-04-01T19:24:00.000-07:00

just a little email banter. you gotta read the last email first and work your way up:

----- Original Message -----

From: 'simon heald'

To: Fuel55

standard

----- Original Message -----
From: Fuel55
To: 'simon heald'
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 6:32 PM
Subject: RE: DEEPStack 14 lineup is set

I have no chance

From: simon heald [mailto:sjktrash@shaw.ca]

Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 6:25 PM

To: 240; Althalee; Grant; Eitan Even; Julia; John V; Joanne; Jane; Bill

Subject: DEEPStack 14 lineup is set

here is the group:

simon
bill
jane
jv
eitan
julia
grant
joanne
alt+delete
240

The worst hand is good!

2008-03-30T20:43:00.000-07:00

this was the night when the best hand was only good on paper. i couldnt count how many pretty gross suckouts occurred, some being kinda gross with others being downright disgusting.

but, thats poker.

Sean found a way to dodge a few bullets himself on his way to the JV Special victory, read his account of his play here.

the first person knocked out would be none other than the man who created the structure, John. kinda sad that in the John V Special he would be the first one gone, but lemme tell you, it was probably the worst suckout of the evening...

let's recap the hand from John's blog:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FCPC home game. Level 1, blinds T25/25. Stacks at T7000.

Fuel open raises to T100 with QQ
Bob calls from LP
Matt calls from BB

Flop: QJ5

Matt leads T200, I call, Bob calls.

Turn: K

Matt leads very small (T150)
I raise another T500
Bob calls
Matt calls.

Fawk, one of these doucheballs has T9.

River: 5

Nice. Now it's time to take these straight-drawing donkeys to valuetown.

Matt checks
I bet T1000
Bob raises to T3200.
Matt folds.
I shove.
Bob instacalls. Of course he has 55.

Jesus fawk! Out in level 1 two weeks runnings.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
thats pretty gross!

later i would be destroyed by a similarily disgusting display from the poker gods:

Final Table (11 players) blinds 200/400

i call Todd Brunson's (Vin) raise to 1000, Brad calls, a few other callers too

i have 77

flop: 267 sweeeeeeeet!

Brad is first to act and he immediately announces "im all in"
all fold to me, of course i call

Brad shows 78 and grimaces when he sees my cards

but wait Bradley G, lets remember who you are! you lay the worst beats on Earth

turn: 5
river: 9

buh-bye Simon! i saw it coming when the turn 5 hit so i couldnt help but laugh my way to the "loser's" table where a sweet little $20 tourney had just started.

is poker fun or is poker rigged? you decide

DEEPStack next week!

The Limp-Call, strongest play in poker

2008-03-25T21:07:00.000-07:00

well, perhaps it's not the strongest play in poker generally, but it was pretty effective in this past week's game.

case in point: early on many limpers to John in the BB, John has AsKd and raises it up to 600 (blinds are 50/100)...everyone calls! this is not so unusual in our game when the stacks are deep.

flop: all spades

all check to Milly on the button who fires out 2000. John, holding 2 overs and the As bangs it up to 6000. Michael quickly announces all-in and John instacalls.

Milly has flopped a King high flush with the undervalued and often underplayed Ks6s. no help for John on the turn or river and all of a sudden we have a crippled stack. John down to about 2500-3000.

not too much longer after this John was eliminated by yet another limp-call. John again in the BB raises all-in after 3 or 4 limpers jump in. Peter makes the call with A9 and has John crushed holding A8. a 9 in the door is enough to give virtually no hope to our only PhD in the crowd.

this limp-call parade we had been seeing was the theme of the night. John was doing his standard berating of all the limp-callers as only he can do. we do have to give the man credit though for staying until the very end. its always nice to have him around

later, Peter was shown the door after getting a little too aggressive with top pair so-so kicker.

Bill open raised with KK and had 2 callers. flop is K-high and Bill comes out firing as the first to act. it folds to Peter who says "im all-in Bill" I am sitting next to Bill and i dont think Bill really understood what had just been plated in front of him. of course he calls and sees Peter playing KT. absolutely no assistance arrives for Peter and he exits in 9th place

George's buddy, Stash was out next after shoving A7 into The Professor's QQ.

slowly the Greeks begin to fall!

Bill, surprisngly, was next out but only because his lucksackery couldnt save him in a pivotal hand (for him) against me:

I raise AA in MP and Bill does the 'ole limp-call with JcTc.

flop: 3c 9c 8s

i fire 5,000, Bill check-calls with his monster draw

turn: Td

Bill checks, at his point i feel like im ahead and start thinking what he is chasing. i assume he has 2 clubs but in the back of my mind im dreading a set.

anyway, i bet 10,000 and he calls. now im worried

river: blank

Bill checks and now i feel im good but because he would bet a hand better than 1 pair. i dont think he would call a river bet unless i was beat so i check too. John knew what we both had and erupted when i checked because Bill had 20 outs going to the river and crapped out.

i dont remember how Bill was eliminated, it may have been by me but i forget. he was doused in 8th.

"one by one the Greeks go down hurrah, hurrah! first its Bill then its Eman hurrah huraah!" (one of my best spur of the moment songs)

Karl got shot down by Michael but nobody cares

Eman bluffed his chips away on a 5-5-4-3 6 board vs Jane. Jane had 52o in the BB and Eman limped UTG with 9cTc. Eman tried raising Jane on the flop, bet hard on the turn and jammed the river only to lose.

my song was validated when this happened. i think ill sing it again next week.

i was a big stack for much of the middle stages of the game but gave The Professor a courtesy double up when i raised K4 and he jammed AJ. i spiked a K on the flop but he rivered the Ace and i started a downward slide.

after that i was in about 3 or 4 race situations and lost all of them. eventually i was pretty much destroyed when, 5 handed, i raised AJ UTG, Jane called on the button and Joanne jammed in the BB. i was left with a decision to call off all but 1,500 of my stack. i dont really like AJ in this spot but i did call figuring she could have a pair that left me with 2 overs. if so i was getting a shot to become really well positioned for the end game.

she had AK of course and we both paired the flop but then i lost. i should have folded, enough said.

soon afterwards i jammed from the SB blind, The Professor called off his paltry stack from the BB blind too when Milner raised JT on the button. i had 63, The Professor had some slightly better crap but Milner hit a pair and i get 5th, Darren gets 4th.

The Professor was one of the Mystery Bounties so Milly scored $50 for that TKO

The Professor, as the bubble boy, won the coveted Greg Raymer WSOP poster but generously donated it back to the club for a future lucky bubbler. very nice of him!

down to 3 handed Michael, Jane and Joanne let the chips fly. all-in with any 2 cards it seemed was entertaining to watch because we had action!

Michael eventually took out Joanne when his JJ was outflopped by whatever Joanne had but hit a J on the river. he also had a 4 flush going to the river but the offsuit J was an ugly ending for Joanne. $70 to Joanne

Joanne was the other bounty and Milner, that lucky SOB, got another $50

i cant remember what the cards were at the end but Michael did win. he generously gave Jane an extra $30 making her prize $150. he took $220 plus $100 for the bounties.

first win for Michael since DEEPStack #1 June 8, 2007

This DEEPStack had QUADS baby!

2008-03-15T11:26:00.000-07:00

how about 3 people making QUADS within 1-1.5 hours of each other?

the game started off with a BANG when, on the 3rd hand of the night, Jane was crippled. the action starts when John raises preflop to 300. Jane calls and destiny leads her down a dark path of destruction. we all started the evening with TC25,000
the flop: K-5-6
John leads out for about 1200 (i think there were other players seeing the flop too)
Jane raises to 4000
John re-bangs another 8000...things are getting juicy! Jane calls
turn: K
John bets, Jane calls. i forget the amount
river: 6
Jane says "just check it John, you've got a K i have a K" so John shoves for ~8,000
Jane calls and flips up AK for a boat
John proudly display 66

THOSE ARE QUADS BABY!!!!

the room erupts because we havent seen quads in ages and that was a sick turn and river. jesus what a start to the night...but wait, it kept on coming.

i think within the next 30 minutes we lost Jane when her limped AK hit the A-5-6 flop but when she shoved Joanne called with the A5 and sent Jane to her demise. a cruel and unnecessary punishment for the Queen of the FCPC. THOSE WERE QUADS BABY!!!!!

not too long after that, roughly an hour or so, the mega-cooler hand of the year came.

Eitan limped, I limped then 2 doors down Sean raises to 1200 and Joanne, one of two bigger stacks, calls on the button. Eitan and i fold
flop is 8-8-5
Sean leads out for 1200 or something and Joanne calls after a little delibertion
the turn brings: Q
Sean quickly fires 4,000 and Joanne quickly calls...hmmmmmm
river: the case K
(i had folded the other K even though it was suited up for war with the 6c--i have that kind of discipline)
Sean announces "I'm all in"
Joanne beats him in the pot "i call!"
Sean flips up KK, thats a nice hand, Kings full
Joanne reveals 88 for your standard flopped quads, eliminating Sean from the game

DEMS QUADS BITCH!!!!

holy four-of-a-kind-batman wtf is goin on here??!! 2 quads in one night? we havent seen quads in forever and now we get them twice in roughly an hour!!??

but what night would be complete without a dosing of the good doctor, John the fag.

within 5 minutes of Joanne's quads a pot develops involving yours truly and Johnny boy. i limped in EP after Eitan limped UTG. three to my left is John who pops it to 1700. i think the blinds were 150/300 at this point. Bill cant resist seeing any flop so he calls the 1700 and i complete with another 1400 and 3 of us are in.
the flop: Q-T-T
Bill checks, i look at John and wait about 10 secs (hoping to make it look like im contemplating a move) and check.
John bets, Bill looks at me, i smile, and he eventually folds. i raise another 2500 which John calls. turn: T
i bet 4000, John announces all-in. i call and show TsJs. Mt. St. Veltheer goes into a mini-eruption and is obviously not too happy and flips over AA
the river is academic as i get the double up. John who had virtually eliminated Jane early with Quads was now on the receiving end of the same medicine.

THESE IS QUADS DR. FISHCAKES!!!

this still left us at 8 players but there were 2 or 3 shorties hanging around looking for a spot to make a move.

it wouldnt happen for George though as he finally found a premium hand in JJ, raised it up and heard Alex say "ill put you all in". George obliged, tossed in the rest of his paltry stack and saw he was up against AK of spades. the "special Ace" would prove to be George's demise as it found a partner on the flop in the form of the Ace of Diamonds. George, who arrived pretty baked, exited quietly without putting up much of a fight on the night.

between George's exit and the next player to leave, Eitan, an interesting hand took place.

i was UTG with the blinds at 300/600/50. i looked down at KK and made a standard raise to 2000. of course, 4 others called and we all bunkered down for the fireworks.

the flop: 2h-3c-4h pretty nice for KK but with 5 people seeing the flop?
Eitan was in the BB and immediately shot out 5,000 into the ~10,000 pot. now, i didnt particularly like the BB coming out with a bullet here because he could pretty much have any 2 cards as he was getting 4.5:1 preflop to call. with a little deliberation i decided "fcuk it" and i folded my Kings. it folded around to Bill and he says "im all in"...i felt happy all of a sudden! Eitan called and when we saw the cards Bill had flopped a straight with Ah5h and a str8 flush redraw. Eitan also had a quality hand in a set of 2s. Bill made his flush on the turn and a blank on the river doubled Bill up and severely hurt Eitans stack.

folding Kings aint easy and i dont remember the last time i did it on a 4-high flop but when your spider senses start tingling you gotta fold 'em.

Eitan would leave us next when he jammed KJ into John's AK and the AK held up.

The Professor had a disappointing game. you could probably count the number of hands he played on your 10 fingers and still have a few fingers left to nibble some food. he didnt get any cards on the night, he was frustrtaed by the end of it and hoped he could find some magic when he chose to gamble vs 2 others. Joanne raised to 5,000, Bill called and The Professor went all-in for another 200 chips.
the flop" 2-6-2
Joanne checked, Bill checked
turn: Q
Joanne bet 5,000, Bill thought about it and folded his K-high flush draw (good fold Bill)
Joanne showed a flopped boat with 66 and The Professor was drawing dead
Bill would have made his flush on the river too...good thing his spider senses were working.

that KK hand i had was absolutely, positively the last quality hand i was dealt until the very end. my stack was essentially being blinded away and i hadnt won a pot in quite a while. with the blinds at 500/1000/100 i looked down at AcQc and pulled a John V and jammed it preflop. of course, the cardrack, Joanne had KK and took me down. Joanne was definitely making a lot of hands on the night, she knocked out 3 players and played pretty well too. i was out in 5th after a promising start that i didnt take advantage of.

down to 4, John, Joanne, Bill and Alex fought each other back and forth until finally a confrontation of massive consequences developed.

Bill, UTG, raised JJ to a standard 3xBB. Alex had a very healthy stack and jammed 50,000+ more into the pot. Bill quickly called and we had a race ladies and gentlemen!
the board came: x-x-x-x-x without the necessary A or K to keep Frenchie alive. would you rather go out first or bubble Frenchie wondered aloud before leaving...pick your poison, they both suck.

3 handed play was aggressive and not very flop friendly as much of the preflop raises were not being challenged. Joanne was a massive chip leader early on and throughout most the night but somehow found herself 2nd to Bill and only slightly ahead of the John when she was paid a visit by the poker demon known as the god-damned-f&*^%!-river.
first she called John's preflop all-in and produced AT vs John's As5s. here is what happened:

suckout Johnny strikes again....or is that for the first time ever?

whatever the case Joanne was crushed and within a few hands she jammed with K5 only to be called by Bill who only had to call 3,500 more with J9.

the board showed: K-3-9-T-9

on the river twice in a row! where else would it come?

finally we were heads up with both John and Bill pretty much even. a deal was made to each take $300 and play for the remaining $70 and the notariety that comes with being a DEEPStack champion.

back and forth they went until the final hand of the night. both players were dealt quality hands so it was no wonder why all the chips went in after the flop.
Bill had 3-2
John had 8-4 (suited mind you)
the flop was 4-x-4
after John checked Bill shoved it all-in and John called. Bill didnt make a miracle straight and finally John took down a DEEPStack joining the cream of the crop in the FCPC. he texted me he would blog the experience so hopefully he doesnt go back on his word...fag.

Congrats to John, he played well after the devastating QUAD blow and never gave up. mind you, he did get AA 5 times, KK 3 times and QQ and 55 once.

this took a long time to write...im out.

DEEPStack this Friday

2008-03-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

im looking to fill up the roster, we have 8 players confirmed and need 2 more. once it fills ill consult the Magic Dice to see who will win (probably me though)

if you aint in the game yet get in touch with me ASAP!

here is who is in today:

simon "the champ"

john "fishcakes"

sean "i wanna be john one day"

bill "i see every flop"

eitan "the resident jew"

jane "darling"

alex "frenchie"

darren "the professor" <----best nickname ever...see below

How about that, i won again

2008-03-10T12:19:00.000-07:00

i try to update this blog as soon as i can after friday night games but saturdays are so full of other stuff that its pretty much a guarantee i cant do it then. sundays i forget and then i get to monday when i remember to write something. so here we go...

first off lemme say that the FCPC site is currently not allowing me to edit anything, i dont know why. ive tried about 15 times to edit the home page with no luck. hopefully it sorts itself out soon.

i won! i am so good it boggles my mind why i dont move to vegas and turn pro.

seriously though, we had a good game on friday that lasted quite a while considering the game and turnout. we played our 11-max $50 "Mystery Bounty" game where there are 2 bounties playing at the table except noone knows who the bounties are. this game creates a bit, and i mean a bit, of excitement because when you get knocked out you must check the 2 seat cards to see if you are one of the bounties. if you are then the person who cracked you gets a $50 reward. we've done this game twice now and its been well recieved both times by whoever has played in it.

this week the bounties ended up being Julia and Bob. i was fortunate enough to destroy Bob with my As5s vs his A7. even though the door card was the 7s i ended up flushing on the river and a perplexed Bob had to leave the table. i think Bob didnt see the flush hit and wondered out loud "im out...huh?" Bob had mentioned numerous times how bad his cards were and he probably felt a bit ripped off because he didnt play many hands and when he did he never made anything, heck he wasnt even dealt a pocket pair in over 4 hours of play!

sucks to be Bob.

Julia was shown the door by Steve, 240s brother. Steve collected the $50 bounty on Julia and would eventually make it heads with me (with a big chip advantage) and i utterly destroyed him...hehe sucker.

key hands for me included the knockout of Bob. if i lose that hand i am in pretty bad shape chipwise and i probably dont win. in that hand Bob was in the BB and short stacked so i butt-raised enough to commit his stack. my A5 spades found a way to take down his A7 and i was healthy enough to make a few plays.

early on with 100/200 blinds i had KK UTG+1 and limped. Matt raised in MP or on the button (i forget) to 600. 2 players called before it got back to me and i re-banged it to 3000. Matt called with AQ and Julia called with JJ.

the flop came 9 high and i fired out 6000 into ~9800, leaving myself roughly 4,000 behind. Matt folded after a bit of thought and Julia was on the verge of calling, she had the chips in her hand! but finally decided to fold her JJ face up. that was a nice hand to win as it got me into or near the chip lead quite early. having that many chips early allows me to speculate with trash far more often than i normally would with an average sized stack.

it took about 2.5-3 hours to lose out first player, Kent. after that about another hour to lose player #2. we started at 7:15ish and finished a few minutes after 12am. i had a big babysitter bill but that was somewhat tempered by my Last Longer Bet with Dr Homo for $40.

by the way, lets all get John to start blogging about his exploits at the FCPC. he never blogs about it and i know we would all love to hear what he has to say about the "ridiculous play" and "donkey-ness". he often complains about how bad his beats are, you know, getting it all in with QQ only to lose to 55. he has some classic rants like this one: "categorically Alex you are the worst player in the history of poker" and "why do i come to this f'n place?!" and of course "c'mon fishcakes {insert derogatory comment here}"

personlly, i would love to read about his experiences here.

more to come...

The Aftermath and a Rant

2008-03-02T20:11:00.000-08:00

so, i didnt win. i didnt even make the final table. we were down to about 13 or 14 (of the 19 starters) when i was crippled and shortly afterwards i was done. not much to say about my showing since it wasnt very notable, however, there is definitely something to write about...

there is one common complaint from people about the play at the FCPC and it confuses me at times. if its not "the players are horrible!" then its "the players are terrible!" and if neither of those are heard then it is something close to that. "I HATE THIS PLACE!"

why do people say that?

are the players here really that bad? do we make more obvious mistakes than anyone at the local casino would make? do we make plays that are that much worse than the average donkey online?

i dont think so. as a matter of fact i believe that the play at the FCPC resembles the play you would see at many casino tables with the exception of higher stakes games ($5/$10 or higher). some of it is good and some of it is bad but most of it you wouldnt see any problem with.

the only thing that really bothers me about the comments are that they mainly come from our "good players" who will routinely make the same mistakes that they berate others about. ive seen it many times in the years we've been playing. someone will check-call with AK out of position after a T-T-5 board, hit a pair on the turn and end up winning a healthy pot. the "good player" who lost the hand will then rant about how "AK is gold" and how "noone here can fold AK" blah blah blah....then 2 weeks later he will do the same thing and have a rational explanation for his "play"

you know, its an expert play.

rarely will you hear "nice hand" or "you got me, well played" because one's ego is on the line. "there is no way im gonna tell that donkey he outplayed me or that he had a nice hand. but when he rivers me he will hear what i have to say."

i think its time to accept the fact there are no experts playing here, no pros, no high stakes winners but certainly a lot of average players playing their game. there is no perfect way to play this game and there are many players out there that will let you know that.

Full tables tonight

2008-02-29T14:57:00.000-08:00

we have filled up both tables for tonight's $40 game. after the room fee and the new "supplies bought by simon over 3 years" fee has been applied we will have a $760 prize pool.

1st $400
2nd $200
3rd $110
4th $50

i am predicting a top 7 finish for myself. lol, is that any good? poker is rigged anyway so ill probably win.

$10 + $5 Rebuy Madness

2008-02-25T17:51:00.000-08:00

the name says it all. this game, for the first hour (and some would claim even after the addons), is just a bunch of blind all-ins. mthe name of the game is to build a stack big enough to bully or coast to the final table. all the usual 72off vs AK battles were waged and your usual "a pair of twos is good!" calls were heard throughout the night. once the rebuy period ends and the addons are done we normally see the typical game develop...whatever that is.

the winner on the night was this guy, Jonny. he was able to find a way to survive the madness and chip away when heads-up to secure his first FCPC title. i dont have a picture of Jonny but ill find one on the internet and post it later.

the night had its share of chip leaders that is for sure. when we hit the final 10 i dont know who was ahead but it didnt take long for Julia, a new-comer to the game, to start rolling. she was betting betting betting and winning winning winning virtually every pot she entered. when we found ourselves with 7 players left she was quite a ways aghead of 2nd place...then the wheels fell off...she wouldnt be the first chipleader to lose it all.

yours truly took a few chunks out of her stack then finished her off when my AQ nailed and Ace on the flop and sent her JJ to the rail. that pot gave me an enourmous stack and i think i thought getting into the money was a formality. at one point i counted ~110,000TC with just 5 players left.

the bubble boy ended up being me thanks to one lost race and one decision afew people questioned but one i feel alright about. first, i had a chance to knock Jonny out with AQ vs his 99 all-in preflop. i did not improve so he was able to double through me and sit comfortably again. a short while later i was involved in my final hand:

blinds at 2,000/4,000 i raise UTG to 15,000 holding 77. Matt, Jonny's friend, re-raises to 40,000 on the button and it folds back to me. now i remember thinking quite a bit before calling him here. the more i thought about all the possibilities i had to give him credit for AK or AQ, perhas a bigger pocket pair but that was mathematically unlikely. the reason i called was because if i saw a favourable flop i could jam it and get 2 overcards to fold.

the flop came Jd 9c 6c

the first thing i thought was "this aint bad, AK and AQ have missed. any pocket below Tens (if he indeed had a pair) would have a big decision to make if i jam here. what are the chances he has a Jack, not likely if he re-raises preflop"

so i announced all-in! and he called pretty damn quick...fcuk

i knew i was toast when i flipped over my hand and i was a bit surprised to see him table AcJc only because of the preflop play. he certainly wasnt gonna fold after he nailed the flop as good as one could expect. i was done in 5th, i bubbled and got some "what were you doing remarks?" afterwards. i tried to explain why i did what i did but apparently 77 is an auto fold preflop there.

i suppose i could have gone all-in preflop and given him a decision but the both of us would have looked like retards for overplaying our hands. im sure he would have called too because after the reraise he was pot committed.

is AJ 5-handed worth losing your stack with preflop? is 77 worth it? i dont know but the way the hand was played he could only call the all-in if he hit a pair and he did. thats poker.

final results can be found on the FCPC site

see you next friday!

DEEPStack 12 Results

2008-02-16T10:45:00.000-08:00

well, well well...how about this, i won!

even haley's comet streaks by every 76 years so waking up realizing i DID actually win a tournament shouldnt feel so "wow" but feeling like i was in a major slump this year and finding a way to get out of it with a DEEPStack win feels pretty nice. actually, the fact we had 16 players and a $650 first place prize feels more than nice. its my 2nd outright DEEPStack win and 3rd overall (one chopped with Eman).

lets see a picture of my beautiful face :

(pay no attention to the ugliness in the background)

now because i won ill recap how things went for me.

things started well. i won a number of small pots to get up to ~30,000 (we started this week with 25,000TC). then i was involved in a big pot relative to the blinds and i played it pretty piss poorly.

blinds are 150/300 and i raise to 900 in EP with AT and got two callers, Dave and Eitan. flop comes AQx and all three of us check. im certain i have the best hand and i tried to be a bit tricky here which would have worked if i followed through with a raise on the turn., but when the K came on the turn i simply called Dave's bet of 2500 when my instinct was to raise...i guess i thought i could get Dave to bluff the river if a blank hit. anyway, a lovely T hits the river giving me two terrible pair. the board shows AQxKT and Dave goes all-in for 8700. the way he acted and the wauy the betting went i struggled to find a way he could have a Jack. i wondered out loud what he could have that included a Jack and then reluctantly called. he flipped over QJ which was a reasonable holding given we all checked the flop. my stack of ~30,000 was now down to around 17,000. good thing for me was the fact Dave was in a giving mood and would later give me a present that set me up nicely for the final table.

as we neared the final table a hand developed at table #1 that had involved way too many chips. to start, Bob was a bit short and made a standard raise preflop that was called by Dave and myself. i had the button and pocket 3s. the flop came 743 and Dave bet 11,100, enough to put Bob all-in. Bob made the call with JJ and i was left to decide what to do here. i chose to just shove it all in for another 29,900 and let dave make a decision. amazingly Dave deduced i had nothing and called with....A4! thank you Mr Dave Abbott. a miracle J hit the turn saving Bob's ass and when the river blanked i had ~60,000 and Bob scooped close to 40,000.

i think that set us up for the final table.

the first two hands i get at the FT are 22 and AK. i raise both hands and win one without a flop and the other when John and i check it down on a 67376 board.

John would be the first to leave us, followed by Kent, Bob, Julia and George.

with a healthy stack i chose to engage in some butt-play and raised a few limpers with K2. Niall in the SB decided 77 was the hand he was looking for and shoved for almost the same amount i had raised. i called, not because i liked my hand but because there was so much dead money in there. his 77 held up and i had used up all of my "playing" chips and had to gear down for a while. it helped that i went card dead but the blinds were beginning to eat me up.

when we hit 5-handed play the post flop action slowly deteriorated as the blinds increased. i found myself the shortstack with roughly 30,000 with blinds at 2000/4000/400 ante and finally i found a hand to play. i was happy to shove over top of a EP raise with AJ. he called with A9 and i was able to grab close to 65,000TC.

Niall, myself, Sean, Ryan and Paul were playing 5-handed for quite some time before we lost Niall. stacks were fluctuating quickly and a few of us took turns on the short stack. Niall went out in 5th but i cant remember what he lost with, i think Ryan took him down (but im not totally sure of that).

the key hand when we hit the money was between myself and Sean. i had AA UTG and raised to 20,000 with blinds at 3,000/6,000. Sean went Sly Stallone on me and i didnt hesitate to flip over my bullets after he tabled QQ. a few seconds later, for comedic effect, i announced "i call". Sean wasnt too happy to see my hand and he bounced around a bit before coming back to deal the board. winning this hand put me well over 100,000TC and Sean, the chip leader for the final table from the start was down to ~50,000.

i think the next hand i was dealt TT and as i was stacking the chips i went all-in. thats when Paul called me with AKcc and he hit a K on the flop and he was back in the game.

Sean was the shorty now when he had the button and moved in with KJss. yan in the BB called with AT but when the board showed KTxKx Sean was out of the doldrums. this loss meant Ryan only had about 10,000TC and he blindly put them in on the next hand. his 96ss was up vs Sean's AA. he flopped a pair and turn a flush draw but couldnt get there on the river and Ryan was terminated in 4th.

we lost Sean in 3rd after i called his preflop raise holding 97cc. i checked the 763 flop and when he moved in i called quickly knowing only an overpair was beating me. odds are he didnt have one so when i saw the flop i was not going to go away. he showed K6ss for middle pair. i made a straight on the river to get to heads-up against Paul.

stacks were about 65%-35% for me and i offered Paul $400 to go home. i needed to finish the game as fast as possible becaus my babysitter was probably passed out upstairs. $300 was guaranteed to 2nd place so i was really hoping he would take the generous offer. he chose to play it out and when he took a chip lead on me after he shoved with K9 or KT and i had AQ i was worried. he won the hand after hitting a pair of Kings and i was cursing AQ yet again. but as quickly as i lost the lead i got it all back plus bit when i picked off a couple bluffs.

the final hand he shoved preflop with 9T and i woke up with JJ. he flopped a gutterball on a KQx board but my 2 Jacks were what he needed. he missed the turn and river and finally after 5.5 hours or so i had finally won a tournament!

lets see my pretty face again:

see you next week, im out!

DEEPStack 12 Preview

2008-02-15T14:45:00.000-08:00

here comes a mother of a DEEPstack tonight!

normally we will hold the game to a max of 10, sometimes 11 players. tonight i thought we could beef up the game by expanding it to 16 players and it sold out pretty quick. at this time we only have 15 (someone got too sick to play) and are currently working on finding a 16th, we'll see.

payouts for 15 players will be:

1. $630
2. $280
3. $180
4. $ 90

the lineup includes a number of people who do not regularly come out to the games so i am having a hard time handicapping this one. Ryan, a non-regular lurker is coming with a friend who has never been, Julia is coming to only her 2nd game and Bob's friend Niall is giving our game another try, we see him roughly every 6 weeks. with a couple wildcard retards playing (him and him) you can understand why this is going to be probably my worst predictions ever.

having said all this lets have a look at the lineup:

simon dave john jane ryan paul bob niall

sean eitan julia grant cathy kent george

all the names in bold are those that the "Magic Dice" have predicted will make the final table. i guess ill go ahead and predict who of these people will win and who will finish in 10th. althought these predictions are not going to be all that close, the "Magic Dice" has told me you can take 4 of the predicted finishes to the bank

1. George
2. Simon
3. John
4. Dave
5. Eitan
6. Sean
7. Julia
8. Jane
9. Bob
10. Kent

comments always welcome, trash talk is encouraged

Omaha Results

2008-02-10T12:55:00.000-08:00

so, our 2nd ever PLO game went down this past friday and, as expected, it was not a showcase of "good omaha" but really, what is? omaha is a game of getting there. its a game of chasing draws. wondering, hoping, praying you have the best of it when the board pairs and you hold the nut straight.

one pair on a semi-coordinated flop with flush and straight draws is usually not gonna hold. who you are playing against matters, will they fold top 2? will they call a pot bet holding nut or 2nd nut draws? simply shoving more money into the pot expecting your opponent will fold is a risky play.

we saw boats lose to bigger boats and of course we saw people chasing flushes on paired boards lose to flopped full houses. thats omaha right?

the predictions from the previous post have to be altered a bit since we had one cancellation. here are the revised predictions followed by the actual finish:

1. Eitan - finished 7th
2. Jonny - finished 2nd just as i predicted
3. Milner - finished 3rd just as i predicted
4. Bill - finished 5th, so close
5. Eman - finished 4th, so close
6. Simon - finished 6th just as i predicted
7. Sean - finished 8th
8. Grant - got credit for the win with a slight chip advantage heads up. unbelieveable he didnt go out first

3/8 aint bad as far as figuring out where people would end up. if Grant and Eitan had flipped-flopped results i would have had a remarkably good record this week.

certainly we will do it again only because i absolutely loved the chips we played with. Jonny owns them and it takes a game of omaha to get him out to play.

Omatards in Action

2008-02-04T23:11:00.000-08:00

this week marks the 2nd installment of the Omaha series (series?? maybe one day). its only the second time we've given omaha a try even though most of us have some experience in it. i can only imagine what the rants and slags will be like when this guy and this guy get drawn out and lose a pot.

here is the lineup for the Omaha game in order of predicted finish:

1. Eitan - on a roll and he is turning into a solid player with some impressive results. lucky jew!

2. Jonny - omaha is his specialty so i expect a good finish

3. Milner - i really hope he cashes, he deserves it. early big stack turns into 3rd place

4. Bill - Omaha? whats that? why do i have 4 cards? i have trip 5s and an Ace...im all in!!

5. Eman - prove me wrong butt-munch!

6. John - retards! blah blah blah...i hate this place! more blah...why cant you ever fold?! blah

7. Simon - im on a seriously disgusting run and Omaha wont be my saviour. i suck

8. Sean - re-raises from the BB with JJxx and cant lay it down on a 6 high board

9. Grant - i dont know why but he has no luck. someone will draw out on his flopped monster

i rolled the dice to get these predictions but the comments, pure gold, are courtesy of me

see you friday

Greek Squad

2008-01-26T11:45:00.000-08:00

Congrats to Eman! he is basking in the sun high atop mount Olympus with his well deserved 2nd DEEPStack victory. while his brother George struggles to prove he can play with the big dogs of the FCPC, Eman wins. Eman has joined the elite of the club with this 2nd official first place. many others talk about their poker proficiency while Eman quietly plays his game and has earned the respect of everyone. here is a picture of the winner:

ok, so let's recap the actual order of finish, (the order i predicted), and the "Magic Dice":

1. Eman (9) "7"
2. Cathy (7) "5"
3. Eitan (3) "1"
4. Jane (8) "8"
5. Simon (1) "12"
6. Bill (2) "6"
7. Bob (11) "2"
8. 240 (10) "4"
9. Kent (5) "3"
10. Sean (4) "11"
11. John (6) "9"

i apologize to the following for not giving you enough respect...Eman, Cathy, Jane, Bob and 240.

i expected more from these folks and am disappointed by how they played...Bill, Kent, Sean & John.

the game started out with a bang! On the 8th hand we had our first casualty when John checked-shoved a 4s 6s 9h flop. Eman earlier in the hand check-raised Kent's flop bet only to see John make his move. Eman knew he was up against a draw but did eventually make the all-in call with the nuts, pocket 9s. John tabled 2s 3s and the board came brick-brick for John and Eman virtually doubled up right out of the chute. John expired in 11th

a little while later Sean took his pockets 7s up against Bill who (i think) flopped top pair and called the all-in. i didnt actually see the hand so i dont know the way it played out. if i am wrong ill make the change later. Sean exited in 10th

it took some time before we lost our next player. Kent engaged in some butt-play with AK but Eman who had limped UTG with pocket 10s re-popped him to virtually put Kent all-in and of course he called. the flop came out with a 10 and when a Q hit the turn Kent was looking for some river love but no J arrived. Kent was out in 9th

240 was nursing the short stack for a while but managed to hang in there for quite a well. eventually 240 shoved in all-in with A9 but was called down by Eitan and his AT. the board came A-2-5-2-brick and the nicest man on the planet was mortally wounded in 8th.

after 240's exit the next 3 players went out in quick succession.

Bob was eliminated by someone (i forget who sniped him)

Bill's K9 was terminated by Simon's JT

Simon was rudely shown the door shortly afterwards when his AT did not improve vs Eman's AQ. Simon will not invite Eman to his next birthday party.

Jane took the bubble honour in the only bad beat Eman laid on someone. in a battle on the blinds the flop came out A-J-brick. Eman came out firing with his J4 thinking Jane would have raise preflop with an Ace. When Jane announced "all-in" Eman was confused but figured his J was the best pair and made the call. he was surprised to see Jane table AT and commented on how well she played the hand but was even more surprised when a J fell on the river to send Jane to the rail. RIP Jane Quennell in 4th, bubble girl.

Eman would end up eliminating the last 4 players on the night. Simon, Jane, Eitan and Cathy.

3-handed the play was short on flops but when we did see a flop the pots were big! Cathy went on a bit of an all-in fest to accumulate chips and watched when Eitan got them all-in with pocket 7s. Eman had a relatively easy call with pocket 10s and hit a needless 10 on the river to secure a 3rd place finish. for Eitan. Simon correctly predicted a 3rd place finish for Eitan so that means Simon is a poker genius.

Heads-up Eman had roughly 75% of the chips vs Cathy and they played for about 20 minutes before the final confrontation occurred. Cathy put her life on the line with A6 but Eman quickly called with AJ. when a J hit the flop it looked bleak for Cathy. however the turn gave her an out for the straight but it didnt show up. Cathy took home another top 3 finish.

all in all it was a good night even though it took a while to finish. i was dog tired at the end of it all and didnt get to sleep in either! see you all next time

The "Magic Dice"

2008-01-25T10:54:00.000-08:00

Before every DEEPStack i will try to remember to consult the "Magic Dice" and ask them what the results will be. i expect that the "Magic Dice" will be pretty accurate in determining the correct finish of our tournies.

Here is how it will work: i will randomly pick a name from the lineup and toss a set of non-magic dice. whatever number appears will be associated with that player. i will do this for all 10 or 11 players. then i will roll the "Magic Dice" to see where thay think everyone will place. the first number i roll will be the last place finisher and i will continue until the "Magic Dice" reveals its indisputable prediction. anyone who chooses to argue with the results of the "Magic Dice" will unknowingly have a curse placed upon him/her, so i suggest you just accept your fate.

having said all this, here are the reults of the "Magic Dice"

the number associated with each player came out like this:

simon 8
eman 5
john 9
eitan 2
bill 6
sean 4
jane 10
cathy 7
bob 3
kent 12
240 11

the order of finish according to the "Magic Dice"

1. eitan
2. bob
3. kent
4. 240
5. cathy
6. bill
7. eman
8. jane
9. john
10. sean
11. simon

hmmm, well....i guess they might be broken but let's see what happens

DEEPStack 11 Preview

2008-01-23T14:53:00.000-08:00

this friday is our 11th installment of the DEEPStack series.

im going to preview the players and give my predictions on who will be in the money. some of the trash talk here will be sarcastic, some will be fact-based real stuff and the rest will be fantasy...you can decide what is what

first, the lineup:

simon
eman
john v
eitan
bill
sean
jane
cathy
bob
kent
240

second, the order of finish

1. simon - no surprise really. the most talented poker player in the group should handily walk away from this game with his 2nd DEEPStack series victory and 3rd 1st place (one was chopped with Eman). unless i get involved with someone trying to make a donkish move on me and somehow gets lucky in the hand, my spewage of chips will be minimzed. blessed with an uncanny ability to read the pulse of most of the people in our group, i can see myself winning probably the first 6 or 7 pots i enter without much resistance. after all, who wants to get involved in any hands with someone who can use x-ray vision to view the beating of his/her heart? if i sense a flutter or irregular beat in your breathing i will jump all over it and put you to the test by saying those four special words..."im all in fag!"

everyone else is playing for 2nd place

2. bill - bill is a lucky mofo who is on an incredible run right now. i had a dream last night that bill was following his usual strategy of playing 120% of the hands dealt to him. every hand is a potential winner according to bill so why not give them all a try? if bill doesnt lose his stack in the first hour he will have a comfortable enough stack to cruise into the top 3. he will finish in 2nd after limping in with K4 suited, then calling the 2nd preflop raise cold, he will flop a King and get it all in vs AK and go runner-runner flush to crush the hopes and dreams of our 3rd place finisher

3. eitan - he will go ballistic after bill pops him in the goolies with the K4 suited. a speech containing the deficiencies in bill's game will ensue and an silent volcano will erupt deep within the belly of our resident jew. without outwardly critisizing his opponents play too much, eitan will get his point across with short, pointed barbs that cut like a knife...and then we will see him the following week. its about time eitan finishes in the money so he really should feel good about this result.

the rest:

4. sean - gets it all in "with the best hand preflop" but loses

5. kent- back from his self-imposed exile, kent leaves a lot of wreckage behind him as he puzzles his dejected opponents with his choice of starting hands.

6. john v - standard huge stack 20 minutes in then he slowly pisses it all away with top pair no kicker after preflop raising it up with Kx, Jx and Ax. "TOP PAIR IS GOLD AT THE FCPC AND I HATE THIS F'N PLACE!"

7. cathy - takes a bad beat from sean and bows out after playing 5% of the hands she gets dealt

8. jane - her marvelous run of late comes to screeching halt when her aces gets ravaged by john's 55 all in preflop

9. eman - simon takes care of him early when he tries to run an unimproved 67 suited by simon's 35 of diamonds on a 58A flop. Eman cont bets the flop but simon's x-ray vision foils all attempts to be bluffed. getting invlolved in a big pot with simon is foolish so this is noone's fault but eman's

10. 240 - this is a standard finish for 240 who's new baby has forced him to attend only select FCPC events. he wont get any cards but wont complain. when he does get a premium hand he jams and gets called by someone with one overcard to his pair and it hits on the turn

11. bob - sorry bob, but your time has come, you will be uttlerly destroyed by everyone you tangle with. y0u wont win a pot and you'll be home in time to catch the soft-core porn on showcase

Let's get this thing going

2008-01-22T10:22:00.000-08:00

this blog has been "live" for over a year now and i didnt even remember i created it. i dont know why i bothered to create a blogger account but i did, so i thought id use it to recap action from the FCPC.

i am by far the best player in the FCPC and i plan to destroy all those who dare to challenge that fact.

peace out and werd up!