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$40 live tourney re-cap

My run of crummy cards continues. I’m sure it seems like I’m making excuses, but I can objectively say I’m just running very badly in live tournaments. Anyway, here are the significant hands from today:

Early on, there was a lot of action at my table. The blind structure moved pretty slowly, but it seemed like a lot of the guys wanted to gamble. I just sat back and tried to learn about my opponents (I’d only played with two of them before) for about the first hour. We started with 10K chips and 25/50 blinds, and we played 30-minute levels. There were 21 or 22 guys total and we had 10 at our table. I could see early that there were several LAGs (Loose/Aggressive players) who probably learned most of their poker from TV. They were from the school of poker that says any Ace is good enough to play from any position, hands go WAY up in value if their suited, etc.

Once the blinds reached the third level, I had a good feel for most of the guys at my table. The first “big” hand I played was a blind-defending hand when I was in the BB. It was folded to the CO who min-raised. He’d been playing tight-aggressive poker so far and had picked off a small bluff of mine earlier with a check-raise. I would’ve put him on a very wide range of hands, but his min-raise indicated strength to me (I see people do that a lot when they have a big hand in late position and they don’t want to discourage action with too large a raise). I figured him for a couple big cards or a medium-to-big pocket pair. It was folded to me and I called with Q8s. The flop came down K86 with two of my suit. I checked, he bet half the pot, I moved in, he folded and wasn’t very happy about it. I also noticed that he would try and get me to show my cards by mumbling about my hand (“Of course you catch a King there…”, that kind of thing). I didn’t oblige and mucked as I took down the pot.

Next level, he min-raised my BB again and I called, this time with AQs. In retrospect, I should’ve popped him for a big re-raise right there because I was giving his late-position min-raises too much credit at this point. Anyway, I called and the flop came AAx with two spades (I had hearts). I checked, he bet, I called. Turn was a blank. I checked, he bet, I raised to a little over three times his bet, he folded and mumbled something about “Why do you have to keep getting Aces there.” Of course, I mucked my cards face-down.

A little later, I got AA in Early MP. UTG was new to the table, sort of short-stacked and limped. I briefly considered limping also because the guys behind me liked to raise, but I realized they were probably thinking what I was thinking: UTG is short-stacked and limped UTG, he probably has a hand. Knowing there was only a tiny chance of a raise behind me, I popped it up to 3x the BB. I got one caller behind me and everyone else, including UTG, folded. (As an aside, it turns out UTG is pretty new to poker and was limping just because he had pretty cards. His EP limp meant absolutely nothing as he essentially limped himself right out of the game within a couple orbits). Flop came down pretty ragged, I bet half the pot, and the late position caller basically said he had a medium pocket pair and that he hadn’t flopped his set, so he’d fold. He also said something like, “I missed my set, but I had to call because I knew I’d bust him if I hit it.” Of course, he was wrong because I knew he had a medium pocket pair and was prepared to dump if he started going nuts with raises and such. He probably tried about 20 times to flop a set before he busted out.

By this time, our table is down to 7-handed and I finally start catching some cards–AQs, AJs, AKs–and raising every other pot. I basically doubled my stack and never had to show a hand. I got called a couple times, but they dumped their hands to a continuation bet after the flop. I had raised so much that I started actually folding hands that are typically raise-worthy because I was afraid I’d get action I didn’t want. (For instance, normally 7-handed at a tight table, KJo is good enough to raise with from EP, but because I’d been so active and hadn’t shown any hands, I had to fold it to give my later raises more credibility. There were some pretty big stacks at the table and I didn’t want people to start itching to look me up.)

A few hands after my little rush, I got AQs in the BB. The SB was short-stacked and I’d been picking on him (you can pretty much pick on any player you want at a short-handed table), so I knew it wouldn’t take much of a hand for him to put all his chips in. At this point, the blinds were 400/800 and I had close to 20K chips. He completed in the SB and I raised it up to 2800 (I couldn’t see his stack, but I estimated that was probably about half his stack or a little less; i wanted him to think I was trying to steal and that maybe if he moved in, I would go away). He thought for a second and moved in for 2800 more than my raise (5600 total). I quickly called and he showed A3s. The board came 39933 and he took it down with his quad threes. I think this was a pretty big hand because it meant the difference between me having a stack of about 25K and having a stack of about 15K.

Next hand, I got KJo in the SB, everyone folded to me and I moved in. The BB only had something like 3K chips left. He was frustrated, but eventually folded. I showed my KJo to let the table know I wasn’t just going nuts and raising every hand with junk.

I think I folded every hand until the next time I had the BB. Before this hand, I had about 15K. Everyone folds to the button (previously the CO) who, of course, min-raises me. The SB folds and I decide that I’m willing to make a move with two good cards–any pair 77 or higher, AT or better, KQ, KJ, maybe QJs–but I had a wimpy little J9o. I figured he wasn’t too strong and I was getting good odds, so I went ahead and took a flop. Blinds were 400/800, so there’s now 3600 in the pot. The flop was T94 with two hearts. I flopped middle pair, Jack kicker. I decided to throw out a probe bet and see where I was at. I get 2K, he raised to 5K, I thought and called. I figured I only had 5 outs, but my implied odds were pretty solid if I hit. I figured him for maybe AT, KT, AQ, AJ. I also considered making a move if a heart hit the board because I was sure that it looked like I was drawing. The turn was an 8, giving me an open-ended straight draw. I checked it, he bet 4K. Basically, I figured I was behind here, so I started counting outs: two 9s, three Jacks, four 7s, 4 Queens. I counted them all as full outs because i couldn’t put him on a hand that would take any of those outs from me. So, I have 13 outs, there was 17.6K in the pot and it cost me 4K to see the river. With odds like that, and about 5 or 6K in implied odds, I really only needed 8 or 9 outs to call. It was a tough decision, but I decided to just call. One reason I didn’t make a move was that I was pretty sure I was behind AND I’d made moves (check-raises) on the flop and turn already against this guy in similar situations. I didn’t feel I had any fold equity if I was behind, so I didn’t want to do anything stupid. The river was a 6, making the board T9864. I checked, he moved in, I folded. He told me later that he had T8 for 2-pair. He also told me he had no idea what I had and he was “terrified” of me throughout the hand. What I don’t get is why he kept min-raising my BB even though I’d taken two pots off him when he tried that earlier. I especially don’t get why he would do it with Ten high. I guess he got about 10K of my chips, so more power to him.

So now I’m basically crippled. Five hands later, we move to the final table and we’re back to ten-handed. I fold for the first orbit (I started in the BB) and then, the next time I was UTG, I got dealt A5o. At this point, the blinds were 500/1000, but going up to 700/1400 either the next hand or the one after that. I had about 6300 left, so I was in pretty bad shape. A5o was good enough for a move, so I pushed. It was folded to the SB who called with ATo, which held up and I was out.

An interesting side note: During my rush of cards, when I was stealing pots like made, I played one hand out of position against a bigger stack. I had AJs, made a standard raise and everyone folded to him on the button. He smooth-called, the blinds folded and the flop was KTx, giving me an overcard and a gutshot straight draw. I made a continuation bet of about half the pot, the button studied me for a while and said something like, “I fold to the set.” Later, as we were all heading to the final table, he mentioned the hand. He said that when I bet, he could see something that he interpreted as a tell, and that’s what told him I was really strong. He said he figured I flopped a set because of this tell, so he got out of the way. Of course, I didn’t have a set, or even a pair, so his radar was a little off. I told him I didn’t remember what I had, but I did know that I hadn’t flopped a set all day. I told him I’d had a lot of AQ, AJ type hands, but I didn’t remember that one specifically. I began to realize that this guy is just one of those poker players who constantly expects his opponents to turn over the nuts. That being said, I will pay more attention to the tell he mentioned, just to make sure it isn’t somehow a bluffing tell. I have a feeling that it means nothing since I am pretty much doing the same things every time I’m in a hand.

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Finished basketball league 8-0 for the regular season

Last night, we capped our perfect season with a 5-point win. It was a tough game because we were playing without our best offensive player and without our best perimeter defender. We compensated by playing good, solid team basketball and playing well in the 2-3 Zone defense. Offensively, we moved the ball very well and constantly found ourselves with good, open looks. All season, we’ve been talking about how we need to move the ball better around the perimeter so that we break down our opponents’ defense before we score. Last night, we did exactly that and it made scoring very easy. Of course, we didn’t score a lot of points (passing the ball 6 and 7 times makes a possession last longer, so we got fewer chances to score), but the other team didn’t score many either.

The other team was definitely more athletic than us, but they didn’t take advantage of their strengths and our defense took them out of their normal gameplan. We bottled up the point guard at the top of the key, so he never had open looks and he had to pass the ball to the wing as soon as he got down the floor. We forced tough looks, even inside where they had a huge height advantage, and got a lot of defensive rebounds.

Personally, I had a very solid game. I scored something like nine points on seven or eight shots. I made a couple three-pointers, a layup and a freethrow (1/4 from the line, though). I missed a couple easy buckets–a runner/teardrop in the lane that was in and out, and a turnaround jumper that I shorted because I didn’t realize I was so far from the basket–but I thought my shot selection and execution were very good. I had a few assists and generally caused the defense a lot of trouble because I moved around so much.

Playoffs start in a few weeks and we’ll be the one-seed. I think we can win it all, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

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Another crummy $50 tournament

I’m pretty frustrated, so this would be pretty short even if there weren’t too many hands to report. Let’s see… I basically stole a lot of pots early and was barely keeping afloat for about the first 80 minutes. We started with 4K chips and I never made it to 5K, but hung pretty well around 4K. Blinds were 100/200. I was dealt JTo in the CO. UTG+1 limped (he’d been limping with some junk, so I knew he wasn’t super strong). I limped (that’s a little loose for me, but this table was playing pretty tight. The button raised it to 400, the blinds folded, UTG+1 called, I called. 3 people to the flop and the pot is 1500. Flop comes down Q99 rainbow. UTG+1 checks, I check, button checks (the button’s min-raise, check makes me a little suspicious, but I’m glad to be getting a free shot at an open-ended straight draw). Turn is the 8d, putting 2 diamonds on the board and making my Queen-high straight. UTG+1 bets 300, I raise to 800, button moves in for 3400 total, UTG+1 re-raises all-in (I think it’s another thousand or so; he has about as many chips as I do). When UTG+1 moved in, he gave a little speech, a big shrug and said something like, “Well, I guess I’m gonna’ go all-in.” I’m obviously thinking my straight’s no good. I thought for a while and folded my JTo face-up. Button turned over KQc (two-pair, Queens and nines), UTG+1 showed JTo for the same straight I had. The river was a Q and the button doubled-up with a full house, Queens full of nines.

I was pretty sure sommeone had a boat with all that betting, but I turned out to be wrong. What’s interesting is that if I called off all my chips, I would’ve been playing for half the pot and possibly only half the side-pot. Later, I’m going to crunch some numbers to see what the proper play would’ve been if I could see everyone’s cards. I think it was a marginally bad laydown, but given the action, I was convinced I was beat. I should note that this is the third tourney I’ve played with this group, and I’ve probably played about 10 hours total. My best hand so far was the straight I folded. I’m pretty sure I have not flopped a set. So, I’ve been running pretty badly.

That covers the first 80 minutes. A little later, I got moved to a new table. I continued stealing blinds and getting crummy cards. I got my first pocket pair when I picked up AA in the SB. Everyone folded to me, I raised the minimum (blinds were 300/600 and I raised to 1200). BB studied me for a long time and finally folded.

A few hands later, I changed tables again. We were down to two tables and 19 people. After about 15 minutes, I picked up my second pocket pair, 66, and made a standard raise from middle position. Everyone folded and I took the blnds.

The blinds went up to 400/800 a few hands later. I folded for a while, then picked up AKs in middle position. I moved in for my last 3200 and everyone folded. I was up to 4400. I flipped up the AKs to show I wasn’t messing around. The table was relatively tight and I wanted to make sure no one called my next all-in with AJ or 44 or something. I knew I’d have to be stealing a lot to stay in it and I didn’t want much resistance.

Next hand, I had A3o and folded.

We’ve got one more hand before we go to 500/1000 w/ a 100 ante.

Next hand, I was in UTG+1 and got ATs. UTG folded, I moved in for my last 4400. Guy two seats to my left looks down and I can immediately tell he has something. He says “I hate this hand”, thinks for a few seconds and calls. Everyone else folds. I said, “You got Ace, Queen?” He flipped over AKo. It held up and I was out.

So, to sum up, my best hand of the night (of the last three tournaments) was a straight, which I folded. I had two pocket pairs all night: AA took the BB, 66 stole the blinds. That’s it.

I guess the encouraging thing was that I paid my entry fee with the money I won playing in the cash game last Friday night. Could be worse, I guess. In all, I felt I played very well. I was card-dead all night, but I managed to steal some blinds and tread water for a long time. This was probably the worst I’ve run of the three tournaments and that’s really saying something. I busted 19/36 on the last hand of the 400/800 level. The last two tourneys, I’ve busted during the next level (500/100 w/ 100 ante).

PS This is my 700th post. Swell.

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Florida basketball fumbling around

Well, after a 17-0 start, we’ve dropped 5 of our last 10 games. Three of those were on the road to then unranked teams. There’s good news and bad news. First, the bad news: we’re young and we seem to have hit “the wall” that players and coaches talk about. It usually happens in mid-to-late Febuary and the symptoms are very similar to the traits of a bad basketball team: there are unforced turnovers, missed layups, poor clock management and bad decision making in crucial situations.

Obviously, this is a terrible time to hit the wall since so much is on the line from here on out. We have to play the SEC tournament and then we’ll get our seeding for the NCAA tournament. Seeding is crucial and we don’t want to fall too low. Florida has been the perennial 5-seed that meets the problematic 12-seed. We don’t want that to happen again.

But there’s also some good news: our biggest loss is by 6 points. We’re not getting run out of the gym, but we’re not finishing games either. In four of our five losses, we were tied or leading with about a minute left. In each case, we found a way to blow it, but we just as easily could’ve won it if fortune was smiling on us. These errors that we’re making late in the game are very small ones and can be corrected with good coaching and experience. If anything, it’s good that we’re experiencing this now so that we’ve experienced these situations before we’re playing down to the wire against an unknown opponent in the NCAA tournament.

I’m hoping we really turn it on again in the SEC tournament. We are the reigning SEC Champs, afterall.

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7-0 in the basketball league

Last night’s game was well in hand until the other team scored 15 points in about 80 seconds. We were up by 16 or 17 at the time and we just got lazy and sloppy. All of a sudden, the other team can’t miss and we had a ball game. Fortunately, one of our guards knocked down a crucial 3-pointer near the end of their run. Once he did that, the other team realized they had to start fouling us because they just didn’t have enough possessions left to close the now-shrinking gap.

Earlier in the second half, I was talking to the score keeper and she said she meant to tell us before the game that she thought these refs were calling the games very tight (we were the last game of the night). I said, “Yeah, it seems like they’re calling a lot of fouls, but I think that will benefit us down the stretch.” Sure enough, the other team went had 10 fouls with a couple minutes left, so we got to shoot two freethrows for each of their desperation fouls near the end. Fortunately, our team is pretty solid from the freethrow line.

I finished with 7 points on three pretty good shots. The first was a driving lay-in made possible because they were in a 2-3 zone and the top two defenders were up too high and far apart. The lane was wide open, so I took it right down the middle. One was a contested 3-pointer from the top of the key. The other was a layup on a little play I like to run against man defense. Basically, I start on the wing out past the 3-point line. If I have the ball, I center it to another guard or forward, so he has the ball at the top of the key. I expect he’ll probably continue swinging it to the other wing because that’s how we typically run our offense. As soon as I make my pass, I run toward the baseline, but I’m ultimately crossing through the paint, just in front of the rim. After the guard/forward at the top of the key swings it to the other wing, I’ve usually beat my man and have position for an easy layup. If the wing sees me open, he can fire it in to me for an easy layup. If I don’t have a good look when I catch the ball, I can usually just kick the ball back out to either the wing (who just passed it to me), or back up to the top of the key.

I also had two very good looks from the 3-point line that I simply missed. One was off a nice little pseudo-give-and-go I ran with one of our forwards. I was at the top of the key and he was over on the wing (about 10 or 12 feet away). I passed the ball to him and took off as though I was heading around him on the wing and over to the corner on the perimeter. He held the ball, facing away from the basket and I used him as a pick. His defender was behind him (between him and the rim), as he was basically positioned to back him down. Because I used my forward as a screen, my defender went underneath to try and catch me on the other side. As soon as I saw him go underneath, I hit the brakes, back-tracked to my original spot at the top of the key and had a wide open 3-point shot because my defender was still caught somewhere on the other side of the pick. Of course, I missed it, but it was a really nice play, mostly made possible by the smart play and good position of the forward.

Enough about all that. We’re 7-0 and that means we’re guaranteed a 1-seed in the playoffs. We have one more regular season game, then a bye and then the playoffs start. We have a very good shot at winning it all.

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6-0 in the basketball league

Well, last week we played pretty sloppily, but we got a win. I think I had 7 points or so. We started the game very slowly, but turned it on in the second half. This week, we faced the only other undefeated team in the league… and we whooped ’em. We blew it open early as we held them scoreless for almost 10 minutes. Their first points actually came on freethrows after a bad call by the refs. I was guarding a guy on the baseline and he tried to turn the corner on me and pull up for a little 7-foot leaner. I blocked the ball low and the ref blew the whistle for a blocking foul. The problem was that the ref on the baseline wasn’t the one who blew the whistle, even though he had a perfect view of the play from about 5 feet away. Instead, the ref at mid-court blew the whistle and called me for a foul. He was about 45 feet away.

Anyway, they were pulling it to single digits when I finally scored. I had only taken a few shots, but none of them were pretty–my first 3-point attempt was blocked by a giant. I finally knocked one down to stretch our lead back to double digits, then I had another two on the next play after we stole the ball at mid-court. I scored 5 points in about 30 seconds and that was it for me this week. I was just pleased that we won and played so well. I forgot to mention that we played with only six guys last week and this week. That makes these wins that much better.

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Another big bust

Here’s the hand that busted me:

We’re 7-handed, down to 21 players at 3 tables. I have just under 9000 (8800, I think) in chips. Blinds are 500/1000 with a 100 ante. Pot was 2200 before the flop. We’ve been at this table for about 25 minutes. The table is playing pretty tightly, but people don’t seem to be afraid to put their chips in with two good cards.

I’m UTG and I look down at TT. I move in for about 8800. Everyone folds to the cutoff, who has me covered. He moves in, everyone else folds and he turns over KK. His KK holds up to win the pot.

I thought for a while about the hand and I’m certain I played it correctly. There was just no way I could avoid going broke in that situation. The flop came 7-high anyway, so I’m sure I would’ve been all-in after the flop.

What was interesting was that there were still 21 players at this level. Last month, we played the same structure, only we had a smaller starting level for the blinds (tonight, we started at 25/50, last time we started at 25/25). Last month, with the slower structure, we only had 13 left at this point. Also, I think I may have busted on exactly the same hand as last time. Blinds/antes were identical and I was at a 7-handed table.

Other highlights:

My best hand of the night was a Big Blind special. I had 23o, the SB completed, I checked my option. (Blinds were 25/50) Flop came down A25. SB checked, I bet 75, SB called. Turn was a 4. SB checked, I checked. River was a T. SB bet out a little over 75, I raised to 200, he called. He told me later that he had AK; I have played with him before and I believe him.

I hadn’t caught any cards all night and finally got AJo in the cutoff. There was one limper, UTG, and everyone else folded to me. The limper had limped with KQo two hands ago. I raised to 4x the BB, he gave a little speech and moved in for the rest of his chips. I had to call because of the pot-odds being offered (I needed to be almost 100% certain he had AA in order to fold). He turned over AA and it held up.

Not too much later, I got 88 UTG+1. UTG raised to 2.5x BB. I thought a bit and folded. That’s a little tight, even by my standards, but here’s why I folded: UTG is a very tight player. He’s the same player who completed in the SB with AKo, rather than raising when no one else had entered the pot. His opening requirements from UTG are pretty limited. The best hand he could have (for my 88) was probably AQ. Also, we were at a 9-handed table, so there were still 7 players left to act. Finally, the button, SB and BB hand ALL shown that they would raise frequently if multiple limpers/callers were in ahead of them. There was too great a chance that 1) I was totally dominated by a bigger pair from UTG and 2) I wouldn’t actually get to see a flop by calling his bet.

Blinds were 75/150 and I picked up KK in the BB. Everyone folded to the button who had been playing very aggressively, especially on the button with no one in the pot. He made the minimum raise to 300 and I just called. After my call, I had about 3000 chips left. My plan was to check-raise on the flop, unless it was extremely safe. Flop came J-high with two hearts. I checked, he bet 600, I moved in. There was 1500 in the pot and I didn’t want to get cute in case he had a flush draw, hit the Jack or had an Ace. I figured I would grow my stack by 50% if he simply let it go, but I didn’t mind doubling up if he called. He said something like, “I guess top pair was no good there.” and folded.

Later, I had 77 in middle position. UTG raised to 4x the BB, I thought he looked pretty strong, so I folded. He took down a big hand with QQ.

I started getting short-stacked and went into “all-in” mode. I picked up A5o in late-middle position and pushed. Everyone folded.

Two hands later, I got A4o in early-middle position. I pushed again and everyone folded to the BB… who was taking a bathroom break. His absence didn’t affect my decision, but I think his hand should’ve been folded since he wasn’t at the table. We waited about a minute for him to return, he found KK and called. I hit an Ace on the flop and doubled-up. Dude was pretty upset that I put a beat on him.

That was about it before I busted out. I managed to accumulate some chips after my double-up (the double-up put me at about 6000 chips). I ran up to about 9000 before I busted. I felt like I played pretty well considering I ran pretty badly. I ran into AA and KK twice and basically just had completely unplayable hands all night. Best unpaired hand was AQo and it won a small pot. I had 73 of clubs probably 5 times. I was never dealt suited connectors.

Bummer.

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Still undefeated in the basketball league

We’ve had two games since I last updated. In our third game of the season, I scored 7 points (two fastbreak layups and a 3-pointer). In our fourth game of the season, I scored at least 10 points (two 12-foot jumpers and two 3-pointers) and possibly 13 points (an additional 3-pointer). I’m playing pretty well, but our team is improving weekly. We’re moving the ball well, playing solid defense and working well in the transition game. We’re up to 4-0 and leading the league so far. We also have at least one very quality win.

Gator basketball on the rebound, but playing hurt

Well, we’ve lost two games, but neither of them is all that bad. Losing on the road at Tennessee was a big possibility even before Corey Brewer’s injury. I was surprised we kept it close as poorly as we played. The loss at South Caroline was a little surprising, but they matched up with us well and, again, Brewer hardly contributed. I think our win at Mississippi was a quality win. They’re a good, big team and we hung with them in spite of Lee Humphrey’s injury and Corey Brewer’s limited production. We started two freshman and they didn’t miss a beat. Also, it was nice to actually get to watch a game for once.

We play Kentucky at home on Saturday. It should be a good game, especially since our starters are a little hampered by injuries right now. I hope we get the win.

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Fear of failure

I’m a chronic sufferer. I’ve never really been “the best” at anything and it’s probably because I’ve never tried hard enough. Although it’s frustrating never being best, it’s nice not knowing that I can’t be the best. Grammatically incorrect as it may be, it’s true. If I were to give a total effort, I might fail and be convinced I can’t succeed. Without a total effort, I don’t have success, but I can maintain the delusion that I could be successful if I really tried. Round and round I go, right into inactivity.

So, that’s probably why I haven’t jumped back into acting yet. It’s probably why I have a bunch of half-started writing projects collecting digital dust on my laptop. It’s probably why I haven’t consistently tried writing music for a couple years now. And I guess it could be frustrating feeling so stagnant…

…except I occasionally get a nice little reminder of what failure feels like. All it takes is a little taste and I’m reminded why it’s so terrifying.