SuperStack Aftermath

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

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

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

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

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!

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
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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!

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

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!!

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

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

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!

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:

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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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!