Saturday, May 28, 2005

JJ goes down in a blaze of glory...a cautionary tale.

My biggest leak in No Limit is not realizing that my hand is crap. For example, I was playing $0.50/$1 No Limit on Ultimatebet yesterday night, I had worked my buyin up from $50 to $86 when this hand came up.

I get JJ in the big blind and raise it to $3.25 and get one caller. The flop comes down 10-7-3, I bet out the pot and the other player raises the pot. I call. A 4 comes on the turn so I bet the pot again and get raised allin.

This is where I need to stop and think...what could this guy possibly have...am I drawing dead? Unfortunately I call thinking the guy is trying to buy the pot and lose to a set of 7's when I deservedly get no help. Mmy stack drops to $7, So I reload and promptly lose it all when I get a straight beaten by a flush...that one I can live with.

So what's your biggest leak?

Thursday, May 26, 2005

I want a divorce!

No not from my wife, from AJ offsuit, I end up married to this hand all the frickin' way to the river on too many an occasion only to get my ass kicked. That saucy little minx of a hand is going to ruin me. I now hate it even more than QQ and JJ.

During Tuesday night's Lizard League game there are 3 of us left each with pretty much equal stacks and I get the dreaded AJ. I raise to 3x the big blind from the small blind and get one caller. The flop comes down:

A-10-7, I bet about half the pot....this was a mistake, I should have jammed...he calls.

The turn is a K, I bet out and he raises all in...at this point I still would have had about half of the guy in second place if I fold, instead I call quickly (I really need to learn to take more time with these big decisions)...and he of course has the straight and I'm out in 3rd. At least I got 5 league points for the big freeroll at the end of the year.

So that's it AJ off, we're getting a divorce...and your sister AT off can hit the road as well.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

TiVO'n the WPT and Click's

Afternoon fellow Lizards. Well, Texter has had all the blog fun up until now, so I figured it was time to jump in...

I recently got TiVO and DirecTV this weekend. Having wanted to get away from the pile of blank video tapes, I've been eyeing a DVR (digital video recorder) for some time. However, when I called my current provider, Dish Network, they said that as a current customer I was not eligible for the same sweet deals as new customers. So I was looking at an up-front extra cost PLUS the added monthly fee. Long story short, I switched to DirecTV and am loving the TiVO world.

So of course my first task was to setup a season pass for the WPT. The first one I caught was the reply from last Saturday where Hansen took down the 5-Star event at the Bellagio. I think it was at a couple years old because you could tell the production value was not what it is today. But that's also a good thing, because what struck me was the way showed more regular hands. Seems like in the newer episodes they only show hands with plenty of action, all-ins, or big bluffs. Saturday's replay had plenty of good ol' pre-flop raises with Q-9 on the button and folds all around. Of course, most of those came from Hansen, but still...

And for those of you in Houston, check out your local Clicks Billiards pool hall. They have plenty of free tourneys during week nights, and Fridays will now be "PokerLizard Night" with extra chipset and DVD giveaways. We hope to expand this to Click's around the country very soon.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Never Bluff a rich guy & The Tale of the Cashout Requests

The other night I was playing at both Bodog and Full Tilt. I was playing $3/$6 NLHE at Bodog (the Josh Arieh table) and $0.50/$1.00 NLHE at Full Tilt. I ended up winning a decent amount (for the limits) at each site and decided to cashout the majority the next day as a test.

I'd never cashed out of either site before and was curious to see which site was faster, I used neteller to deposit so the cashouts would be neteller as well. I made the cashout requests within 5 minutes of each other on Saturday Morning (5/21 at around 8:45 a.m.).

The results:

First prize goes to Full Tilt who had the money in my neteller account within the hour! That's the fastest I've ever seen. Bodog on the other hand still hasn't hit my account (5/23 at 9 am)...so I'll keep you posted.

Anyway I lost a decent sized pot ($257...considering it was $2/$4) at the David Williams table on Bodog thursday night...I had A4 and he had 9-10 and caught a 10 on the flop and I caught a 4, I think I played it aggressively enough, but trying to bluff a guy who has $3 million in the bank for a few hundred bucks is a bad idea...he said it was a tough call...but I think he was just being nice. I would advise anyone playing at either the Arieh or Williams table to not sit to their immediate right...wait 'til someone gets up and sit far far away.

How this multi-millionaires can play for such low stakes and not be bored out of their skulls is beyond me. How they can put up with the railbirds wannabes talking smack all night is beyond me also.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Thanks and Lizard League

Turns out that CNBC is re-broadcasting the National Headsup Championships, so thanks to the people that emailed and gave me the news.

Hopefully, I'll get the real program this time.

Well, I won the Lizard League tourney last night after being down to my last 5 outs, I caught a miracle Jack on the river to take the chip lead instead of finishing in 3rd.

Wildmde and I had a pretty long headsup battle until I got 2-2 in the small blind and caught a 2 on the flop. We ended up getting all the money in on the turn and my set held up (he had 10-10).

Hope to see you at the next game (they are the second and fourth Tuesday of each month and the top players qualify for some big Freerolls).

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

National Headsup Championships on NBC

So I check out the TV listings on the Dish Network and it turns out my local affiliate would rather show Arena Football instead of the National Headsup Championships. How clueless are these people, don't they know how huge poker is these days?

I do some searching and find out they are going to air it at 1 AM, so I Tivo it. Lo and behold, I go to watch the show yesterday and it turns out my program guide was wrong so I ended up getting Byron Allen's movie review show and some infommercial.

Sure, as a child, I enjoyed Byron Allen on the show "Real People" (I wonder what Sarah Purcell is up to these days?), but I really wanted to see this show. Does anyone know if a bit torrent for it has come out yet? Help a Lizard out.

Monday, May 9, 2005

Hand of the day...How bad was my play here?

I think I played this hand like crap. I think a raise on the flop or turn is a much better play, what do you think?

Ultimate Bet No-Limit Hold'em, $1 BB (10 handed) converter

UTG+2 ($15.25)
MP1 ($103.10)
MP2 ($54.25)
Hero ($84.05)
CO ($130.90)
Button ($280.60)
SB ($98)
BB ($75.50)
UTG ($76.40)
UTG+1 ($117.40)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with 8h, 7h.
1 fold, UTG+2 calls $1, 1 fold, MP2 raises to $2, Hero calls $2, 4 folds, UTG calls $2, UTG+2 calls $1.

Flop: ($9.50) 4h, Qs, 5h (4 players)
UTG bets $9.5, UTG+2 folds, MP2 folds, Hero calls $9.50.

Turn: ($28.50) Js (2 players)
UTG bets $28.5, Hero calls $28.50.

River: ($85.50) 8d (2 players)
UTG bets $36.4 (All-In), Hero calls $36.40.

Final Pot: $158.30

Tuesday, May 3, 2005

Interview with Richard Sparks and some WPT action

Yesterday, we interviewed Richard Sparks about his new book, Diary of a Mad Poker Player. The book is about his quest to become the next Chris Moneymaker or Greg Raymer and qualify for the "Big One" at the World Series of Poker.

His book is an entertaining read, especially if you play online poker. A full review and the interview should be coming out soon. He also gave us some great advice on how to cover the World Series of Poker which has now become a total circus.

I watched the latest WPT episode (the one from Tunica) with Scotty Nguyen and Daniel Negreanu (click the link to read our interview with Daniel) and wondered exactly how much beer Scotty can drink while playing? Everytime they showed him he was either finishing a glass of beer or had a full glass of beer. I know when I play drunk, I generally either run over the table or get my ass kicked, so I wonder how he does it? Although, I think the beer was getting to him when he made the allin play with 89 when his opponent was pretty much pot committed to calling. Did I see Gavin Griffin (click the link to read our interview with Gavin) sitting in the crowd?...sure looked like him.

Congratulations to John Stolzmann who took home the big prize, he played very well and seemed to keep his composure throughout the final table.

According to people at the tourney Stolzmann left a crappy tip for the dealers, see Mike Paulle's blog on the subject:

http://www.pokerpages.com/blog/index.php?itemid=119&catid=3

Stolzmann apparently thought that the dealers got 3% of the prize pool when they really received much less (the 3% was split among all tourney personnel). After initially apologizing, he then changed his thinking, after getting blasted by some and supported by others in internet forums. He now believes that $45,000 (3% of $1.5 mill) plus a little extra is plenty for tourney staff.

There are several posters on both sides of the issue, see the links below:

http://tinyurl.com/awj3g http://tinyurl.com/cuddc

Personally, I would have tipped more, but don't really hold it against him. What do you think?

Check out this blog periodically to see how Team PokerLizard is doing on their own quests to make the "Big Show".