Considering the rust that certainly exists in my poker game, I decided to just play using “FTP” points that I had accumulated from back when I was playing more regularly.  I had used the vast majority of the reward-like points for acquiring poker paraphernalia, such as a nice poker chips-set and a few poker books, but still had a few thousand FTP points to mess around with.  I promptly won a 90-person satellite tournament Saturday night which gave me entry into a bigger tournament the next day.  A much bigger tournament.  Full Tilt was attempting to set a record for the largest tournament in history with a 50,000 person tournament.  My buddy Brian also won a seat into it and I was really looking forward at turning my $0 entry into potentially $45k (1st place money).  I mean, there were only 49,999 players standing in my way — how could I lose?  Well… it wasn’t to be as I made a few bad plays, had little to work with card-wise, and then I managed to get all my chips in the middle, drawing dead, about 30 minutes into the tournament.  Oh well!  Brian lasted awhile longer though he too didn’t have much to work with, either.

Not one to let a stupid mistake hold me back, I decided to enter a much smaller, more standard tournament: a 90-person, knockout-style, tournament.  Knockout means you get a bounty for each player you knock-out.  This reduces the pain of the buy-in if you place out of the money but manage to take out a few players before you bust-out though obviously it reduces the prize pool a bit for those that DO make the money (the top 9 finishers).

I managed to hold steady at above-average in chips much of the tournament but when it got down to around 20-30 players, I made a move into 3rd-6th in chips.  I continued to play well and we eventually got down to around 12 people remaining.  At this point, I took a nasty beat and dropped from 3rd to 11th in chips.  My persistent ability to bubble out of tournaments seemed ready to rear it’s ugly head and remind me why poker is not a game for their faint of heart.  I struggled and struggled and managed to outlast several opponents and somehow squeaked into the top 9 and the money.  Then I made another run and moved from 9th to 2nd in chips though the chip leader had everyone vastly outchipped with a monster stack.  Steadily, players started dropping until it was just 3 of us.

The (one-time monster) chip-leader had about 120k in chips, I had ~90k, and the 3rd place guy had about ~30k.  The blinds were astronomical and aggression and a willingness to risk it all had been the status quo for the last 15 or so players and that continued.  Eventually, I got the 3rd place stack all-in drawing slim as he made a stand with A9 vs my AQ.  The 9 on the flop was devastating.  Then, my KK was cracked by the same players Ax.  This second blow dropped me well down in chips such that I had to virtually go all-in every 2nd hand for several hands in a row though passive play from the other two players helped me recover a bit.  Eventually, I worked back up to equal in chips to the other smaller stack and we got it all-in again, this time with me holding AA against his A2 — an overwhelming favorite and I put him out of the game.

The chip-leader had been playing pretty passively 3-handed but had picked it up shortly before I knocked out 3rd place and had me outchipped by a significant margin which expanded as I was getting nothing but rags.  That said, he wasn’t the strongest player I had ever faced and despite the massive blinds forcing a lot of aggressive push-and-hope moves, I managed to slowly chip up and then double-through him.  This left us about equal in chips for the next hand.

Blinds were 500/1000 with our stacks both around 120k, him slightly ahead.  Realizing I had enough chips to try and outplay him post-flop which plays to my advantage since I felt I was a much better than the other guy, I limped in from the button with Qc6c.   He bumped it up to 25k, a modest raise considering the blinds and my limp, so I called to see if I could catch the right flop w/ my modest hand.  A flop of Q x x wasn’t as good as a 2-clubbed flop but I felt I had almost certainly had the best hand.  Not surprisingly, my opponent pushed all-in which helped confirm that he didn’t have a monster that had me beat.  99% certain I had the best hand, I called and he turned over a K J — no pair, no draw, and only 3 outs of 44 cards remaining to win — for this pot which represented 95+% of the chips in play — essentially, the tournament.

The turn:

It’s hard to be disappointed by a 2nd place finish in a decent-sized tournament when you’ve been away from poker for so long but it’s always heart-breaking when you get your money in as a significant favorite (~85% to win for me at this point) and are set to take away the grand prize.  That said, I had mostly avoided bad beats throughout the tournament (other than the two hands against 3rd place mentioned above) so I guess I’d rather the bad beats come once I’m in the money than earlier in the tournament.  Overall though, a 1st and a 2nd place finish isn’t a bad way to get started back into poker.

I recently got around to watching the WSOP Main Event coverage on ESPN from this year which wrapped up about 2 weeks ago.  As always, that has stoked my interest in poker again.  In addition, most of you have probably noticed the economy is not doing so well.  My investments, funded w/ my poker winnings, have taken a hit along with everyone else.  Tell me again how online poker is gambling but stock trading is not?  Perhaps I should have stayed away from stock trading and focused on the less risky business found in gambling.

Speaking of Risky Business, I did indeed name this article such that I can have a reason to post possibly the best television ad ever: Risky Business.

From time to time, I’ve gotten heavily involved in the world of poker which is rife with bad streaks where no matter how well you play, sometimes you just lose and then lose some more.  There is little fun to be had in any activity where you can consistently make the right decision and yet still get punished; Sadly, there is a lot of that in poker.

More recently, I’ve spent much of my free time playing Civilization: Revolution.  The Civilization series is notorious for their addictive nature.  Civ:Rev might not be perfect but it’s still fun and engrossing.  Well, that is until you encounter the bugs or the ridiculous cheating the artificial intelligence that takes place.  Firaxis, the company behind Civilization, seems to be blessed with great design abilities and terrible implementation skills.  In a game like Civ, I’m expecting a simulation where the difficulty increases generate smarter opponents, not an arcade-like style of game where unrealistic and annoying cheats detract from the game.

As an avid reader, I readily pick and read all sorts of books.  Unfortunately, all too often I can get pretty far into a book before I realize that I’m simply not enjoying this story.  My favorite genre, epic fantasy, is notorious for starting out strong but ending weakly.  I’ve found far too few “must read” and too many “waste of money” books.

Yet for all the frustrations these things bring, I find myself returning time and time again to each of them.  I have no doubt I’ll go back to playing poker at some point, perhaps around my birthday when I go to Vegas.  I’m still trying to setup games of Civ:Rev with my friends.  And I’m also wandering the bookstores, picking up new stories, hoping for a winner.  In some way, the frustration has also been inspiring.  Though little has come of it, more than once I’ve entertained the thought of building my own Civ-like game.  Or writing my epic novel.  Perhaps one day these frustrations will eventually drive me far enough to do actually followup on my ideas.

Blinds were ~300/600 with 50 antes. Early position player raised a standard 3x blind to 1800, one of the chip leaders to my right flat-called, and I raised it to 7500 with KK. Initial raiser folded and big stack immediately pushed all-in. I insta-called. I wouldn’t have folded anyway but the pusher had been playing quite aggressively the whole time I had been seated at a table with him. In addition, in the previous 3 or 4 hands, I had played back at him twice and won two good-size pots off of him so I’m sure part of his push was just to bully me. Needless to say, I was a heavy favorite to his AQ (though you always dread seeing Ax when you have KK) and even more of a favorite on a flop of J 7 3. The turn was an ominous 10, giving him 2 more outs — any of the aces or two remaining kings would give him the win (~10-12% chance to win for him). In truly sick fashion, I made three of a kind on the river K and gave him an Ace-high straight. Surviving that sick beat would have put in the top 5 in chips and set me up for quite a nice payday. Moments like that though are why I would never recommend anyone play poker for money — you have to be able to take these brutal beats and move on. Finishing just 5 places shy of a payout is soul-crushing.

After I relaxed in front of the TV for about 15-30 minutes to blow off some steam, I wandered upstairs and played The Phantom Hourglass on the Nintendo DS the rest of the evening (and into the morning). I ended up beating it and, without a doubt, that was a superb game. I’ve been playing it mostly on vacations and flights for the past 9 months and it is definitely a must-purchase if you own a DS.

I played my first poker SnG tournament in over a month last night and came away with a fairly easy win. I played a slightly lower level than my usual and it was almost anticlimactic as I steadily just stole chips left and right from my opponents without any chance of being outplayed.

Getting away from poker was actually quite relaxing and I’m planning on keeping my play time modest for awhile. It’s such a time-consuming hobby if I get too involved and I’m focusing on my other endeavors at the moment. On the other hand, there are so many weak players just looking for a way to give me their money, I feel not playing is like losing money. Unfortunately, the nature of the game leads to swings and my incremental gain is relatively modest so it takes a significant time investment to make it “worthwhile”. In addition, as bad as most of the players are, the typical player is better than they once were. I think this is due to the poker boom having worn out its welcome (in the US, at least). The players who have stuck with it have that much more experience and so make my grinding even less rewarding.

While I didn’t make an effort to go to the WSOP this year or last, I hope to make it back sometime in the future. I have a Vegas trip planned with some friends for my birthday but it’s so much nicer when someone else pays for it!

Perhaps the two most painful bubbles were in a WSOP Satellite and in a tournament PokerRoom was having for the WSOP players they had sent.  For the latter, PokerRoom had setup a tournament for the 60+ people that had won a seat to the WSOP.  The top 8 (top 10?) people would all win a trip on a cruise and finish the tournament there.  The winner would become a “Pro” for a year, sponsored by PokerRoom.  I was one of the shorter stacks when it got to the bubble so I don’t know if I would have won the whole tourney but I certainly would have liked to win the trip.  I pushed w/ K J from SB and got called from BB with A-3.  No improvement for me and I bubbled as I have so many times previously and since.

Went to see The Grand at the E-Street Cinema in DC yesterday with some friends and it’s definitely worth seeing. It’s a mockumentary style movie about poker and it plays up the stereotypes very well. Additionally, though it’s a movie about poker, it doesn’t really have all that much poker actually in it so it should appeal to quite a few people who otherwise would skip it. Anyway, if you like mockumentary style movies like Best In Show, you would probably enjoy this movie. Poker aficionados just get a bonus with the numerous cameo appearances by the notable poker faces.

Recently, I’ve been intrigued by 5-table tournaments on Full Tilt.  These 45 player tourneys fills up very quickly and provide a decent return if you place in the top 3 (top 6 paid).    I’ve played about 6-8 of them and haven’t finished worse than in the teens — Sadly, I can’t seem to finish strong and my best finish was 5th.

Last night, I fell into the same trap. I tend to play well below my skill level right now as I’m building my bankroll up and as a result, I dominate most tables I’m playing on. However, even the best player can lose to a weak player if the cards fall just right. Over time, the better player will overwhelm the weaker player but in a particular hand or tournament, things can go awry very quickly. Last night, I had a brutal stretch of bad beats ranging from 60-40 favorites to 90+ favorites losing to the weaker hands. Twice, I had someone down to a single big blind and have them come back and win because they were catching everything in sight. At one SnG, I ran over the table and had a commanding chip lead until the short-stack doubled through me three times in three consecutive hands as a 70:30 underdog.

My gameplan is generally to play anywhere from 1-3 SnG tourneys a day until I build up my bankroll. Of course, I violated my own rules and played over and over again to try and reclaim my losses. I finally stopped playing but having lost even more.