State Team Matches/Random Poker

Well as I stated in my last blog post, my club Baltimore Country Club (BCC), was the only club not to play it's second round match in the MD State Team Matches 2 weeks ago. That meant we had to play the second round match at 8 am last Saturday with the winner playing the third round that afternoon at 2. So off I went to Rolling Road (second round opponent) early Sat morning. I had played Friday but had been rather pedestrian (i.e. I sucked ass) in that round so wasn't sure what to expect. Well I came out and really played well. I actually made 6 birdies in the first 11 holes (haven't gone on a barrage like that in some time) and we just routed our opponents. In fact, the whole team crushed and we won 14-4 or something like that.

So we jumped in the car and high tailed it up to Hunt Valley for the third round match. Again I was very solid and my partner picked me up where I needed it and we won the front nine 1 up for the full point. Our assistant captain came up to me on the 14th hole and said we had to get all 3 points (1 for front, 1 for back and 1 for overall) or we were in trouble. Fortunately my partner had birdied the par 4 13th to put us 1 up on the back and 2 up overall. 15 was a ~550ish par 5 and I laid up to ~125. With a bit of a breeze in the face I decided to punch a 9 iron and hit it about 12 feet. At this point a few people had shown up to watch us finish so that always gets the juices flowing. Both opponents missed birdie putts and I knew if I could make this we would be in very good shape for the three points. Well I stroked it pure and it was in the whole way. Then on 16 (a shortish par 4 ~400 yds). I again hit a punch 9 iron and made about a 15 footer to close out the match and all three points. On the day in 31 holes I made 10 birdies and my partner kicked in 5 more. Haven't had a good run like that since who knows when. Hope it is a sign of things to come this summer. Team ended up winning 10.5-7.5.

Those two wins put us in the quarterfinals on Sunday against Towson GCC. They have picked up a few young players of late and have become a good strong team. Not sure if it was the 36 we had to play on Saturday or what but the team seemed flat. My partner and I actually lost 1 down on the front and 1 down on the back for a 3-0 sweep. Our defending champion and team captain also lost all 3 points. That is a recipe for trouble and we ended up losing 10.5-7.5 in a disappointing upset. My partner and I didn't play poorly we just never really put enough pressure on our opponents and didn't make the putts like the day before. We were actually 1 up early on both sides and just couldn't close the deal.

My tournaments for May are as follows:

May 4 MSGA Am and Open Qualifier (fortunately haven't had to do this qualifier in a while)
May 16-17 Baltimore Two Man

Starting to work on my game to get ready. Also been back in the gym as I have gotten out of shape over the last 3-4 months.

Also been able to put a little time in with poker. In fact, on Wednesday i stayed home in the morning and played a bunch of stuff. Went deep in a $33 Omaha Hi-Low event on Stars before busting 4th (~125 started I think). Key hand was a hand where I had A2K8 with the K suited 4 handed. Blinds were 2.5k-5k and I opened to 14k. Guy on my left 3 bet me for full pot. He only has about 20k behind and I have about 90k to start the hand. He had three bet me a few times before and I had folded each time. This time I decided to stand up and shipped over him. He called and showed a AA-high only hand. Flop came two small and two spades (my k2 were spades). Turn was a blank and river paired the board so I missed. That hand hurt me and left me with ~25k in chips on the short stack. I hung around for a few orbits but ultimately stuck it in on an uncoordinated flop with one pair and a weak low draw. Unfortunately, the BB called and showed a flopped set with a better low draw and I was out.

I also went deep in the Stars 70k guarantee last week ultimately busting 40th (~1300 started). I was somewhat short (probably 8 BB in the BB). Shipped it in with an up and down str8 draw and two overs on the flop but missed.

Been playing some satellites for FTOPS (which starts in early May) and for the WSOP on Stars. I actually have made it to Step 5 in the Stars Step program. In fact, last night I was all in preflop with 66 vs. 55 for a Step 6 ticket (Step 6 is the final Step where the WSOP seats are won). Obviously the other guy spiked a 5 on the river so I didn't get the ticket. But I got a replay ticket for Step 5 and will try again.

April 15

Well the day is finally here. Last 3 weeks or so have been basically a blur. Was a good year business wise but it gets harder and harder to grind it out every year.

Now that the craziness is behind us I have a lot of good stuff to come. For one I actually get to eat a meal with my family, put the kids to bed, etc. My kids are good about it but I'm sure they don't really understand why I am at the office so much this time of year. Luckily the weather here has been hideous so not really a lot to do outside, etc. up until now.

Golf will kick wight into gear this weekend as well. I am playing a guest day on Friday with a buddy of mine. Then Saturday we have our MD State Team Match to make up from last Saturday when it poured all day. Somehow we were the only ones to not play. So we have to play a match at 8 a.m. then the winner of that match will play again that afternoon at 2 p.m. If we win both matches we would play the MD State Quarterfinals on Sunday. Lots of golf potentially this weekend.

Poker will also be taking up a bit more of my time. I am going to take it easy here for the next week or so and just play some tournaments and fun stuff. After that I am going to start grinding high volume sit and go's to try and start really building up my bankroll before the May version of FTOPS and, of course, the WSOP in June. More on this later.

Finally, since my head has been buried I missed one of my favorite bands in concert in DC last week-Death Cab for Cutie. Here is a video of probably my favorite song by them if you are unfamiliar:



And here is another of my favorite songs by these guys:



Finally if this sounds good, the lead singer of the band did a side project called THe Postal Service. This was a one album band and it is more electronic than DC4C. Wish they would do another. Here is the best song from that LP (you've probably heard the intro in a few commercials including, ironically enough, a UPS whiteboard commercial currently running) This song has also been covered by a number of other bands:

Was there ever really a doubt...

that this would go in?



Just in case you have forgotten here are a few others:

Last time we saw this:



One year ago:



Then there is this:



and of course, this:



Can't find some of the others like:

• Birdie on 17 to win 1994 US Am
• 90 foot birdie on 17 @ Players
• Hole out on 16 @ Pebble
• Blah, Blah, Blah

We are lucky to get to see all this....

Ashley Schaeffer

For those of you with HBO please check out the new comedy on Sunday nights at 10:30..."Eastbound and Down". Shit makes me laugh. The fact that Will Ferrell is the producer certainly helps. Do yourself a favor and watch it. Here is a clip to whet your appetite:



Kenny Powers: :"I thought Ashley Schaeffer was going to be a woman"
Ashley Schaeffer: "I love women..I take that as a compliment...wooo"
KP: "Take it as you will"
AS: "I will"
KP: "You should"
AS: "I am...I'm taking it"

Priceless dialogue...

Commercial for Ashley Schaeffer BMW...



While I am at it here is one of my favorite songs and videos (from Step Brothers):

Phil Hellmuth, Tax season, etc.

Well tax season sucks as it always does. I barely get to see my family, have no time to do fun stuff, don't workout enough, etc. etc. etc. I have been getting in an hour on-line here and there just to kill time or chill. Still just grinding sit and goes and will be doing that pretty hardcore after tax season. I really think I can make a secondary income from on-line SNG and will be putting in more hours after April 15.

It is actually warm here and that means golf season is coming. As some may know we joined Baltimore Country Club (BCC) late last fall after ten years at Hayfields CC. BCC is the preeminent club in the area with 2 very good golf courses, great facilities and lots of stuff to do for the kids and whole family. Really excited to get out there and slap it around. Again not much play until after tax season but I can hit some balls, etc. and prepare for the Maryland State Team Matches which unfortunately start the first Saturday in April. I enjoy the matches but they start at the worst possible time for me. Makes those weekends very long as I usually get in abt. 6 a.m. work til 11:30, go to the club to play the matches at 12:30, head home to say hi to the family at around 5:30 then get back in the office from maybe 7-11 doing more tax work. I'll write more about this as it approaches.

Finally, I read a blog post that Phil Hellmuth made on Cardplayer.com recently. Here is the link:

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/blogs/article/4966

Just...Wow. This is fucking retard speak. Before I begin and you say "Woods who the fuck are you to critique PH?", let me state the obvious: PH has eleven WSOP bracelets and I have as many as my 6 year old daughter. He has made his living playing tournament poker (primarily) and developed a brand, etc. around that. I have won a few small daily tournaments in AC and basically my tournament record is bullshit compared to him. Many people think he is a jackass but nevertheless he has been quite successful historically. Having said all of that this blog post makes me want to punch my monitor. Repeatedly. Hard. Til it breaks so I don't have to read it again. SO here goes my response to Mr. Hellmuth.

So he lays out three options with his KQ suited: limp (retarded), raise to 3 times the big blind with the intention of maybe folding and maybe calling depending on his read (WTF is he smoking here), or shipping it all in (obv I and most would say this is the best option).

Limp: Ok this is really really weak and basically sucks ass. What do you do if someone raises behind you. You fold? You call? Huh...very weak line. Depending on the stacks, etc. it is possible for someone behind you to raise with 77+, ATs+, KTs+, KJo, etc. In fact big stacks would probably raise much wider than this if there are a bunch of limpers in the pot. So he is basically giving up any control of the pot to anyone who wants it and then he will rely on reads to decide what to do. I have a real hard time believing you can read a hand pre-flop. Does a raise with JJ look that much different than a raise with AK? Sometimes you can see that a player is excited to get his chips in, etc. but generally reading a hand pre-flop is very difficult. Now to his credit this will save his tournament life at times if there is a ton of action behind him and it is obvious there are huge hands there but that doesn't happen a lot. He wants and needs to be in pots with hands like 77-JJ; KT, KJ, QJ, QT, JT and really even hands like AJ, AT are hands that given the dead money in the pot he is without question getting the right price to stick his chips in.

Raise: Ok this is reasonable if he intends on calling all-in to a re-raise. Often times with thinking solid players, a raise like this looks stronger than an all-in push. The thinking is "ok he is putting in 30% of his stack from early position, he must be strong". Most good players would assume that he is going all the way with it and not folding if they put him all in. Contrast this with an all in push which looks a little like desparation. Phil says this about raising:

This option is not a good one, but it does give you the chance to fold your hand when you're reraised; thus giving you a chance to save your last $4,600.

Go fuck yourself for even writing thisl! He does later say that raise-folding would be very rare but to even think about this is just mind boggling. He or anyone should never, ever, ever be raise folding this hand. If you raise to $1,800 with a hand as strong as KQsuited and then fold to a shove you are essentially turning that hand into a 7-2 bluff. In other words, if you were inclined to bluff with 7-2 then you have essentially treated KQsuited as equal to that hand by employing the same shitty strategy. Raise call is ok...Raise fold is sulfuric acid on nutsack bad.

All-In

This is how I and I think most good players would play this hand. There are essentially three possible outcomes to this:

First if everyone folds you pick up the blinds and antes and increase your stack by nearly 25%. A lot of marginal hands might fold if you ship. Hands like 55, 66, etc. might fold. Also hands like AT, A9, etc. would probably not be thrilled about calling off here. Good result.

Second you may get called by hands that do not have you dominated such as 77-JJ, KT-KJ, QT-QJ, JT and perhaps a few others by big stacks. In all of these cases you are essentially in a coin flip for more than a double up. Very good result. In fact, a hand like AT, AJ, etc. are only approx 55-45 favorites over you. Given all the dead money in the pot that is a good price.

Third, this is the only bad scenario...someone wakes up with one of the 4 hands that crushes you (AK, AA, KK, AQ). Well that just blows doesn't it. But this doesn't happen that often as we all know. If it does, you dtill can win the hand although admittedly you are a severe dog to do so. Bad result.

So in the full universe of potential hands that you don't want to see there are 4. And you have 2 of the card combinations that make up 3 of those potential hands.

So this pre-flop strategy he speaks of basically sucks. Stick it in or raise and call a re-raise if you must.

He then attempts to justify the pre-flop play based on the miracle flop he got.

By the way, if I had moved all in pre-flop, then I would have won $1,575, but my limp had won me an extra $4,900! Again, I wouldn't recommend the $600 call to anyone other than a top pro, but it worked pretty well for me, at least this time.

This is being results oriented entirely and anyone who has played any degree of poker knows that results almost don't matter in the short-run. There is luck involved in any one hand or tournament or even series of tournament. The skill eventually rises up and that is why the best players like DN, Ivey, etc. are so often at final tables, etc. An example: a guy raises in front of you, you reraise with 22, he three bets you and you 4 bet ship with your 22. He calls and shows AA. You flop a 2 and win a big pot. From a results orientation you played it right apparently? Does anyone really believe that 22 played this hand well though? Doubt it. 22 got lucky and hit a 2 outer as an 80/20 dog.

What Phil fails to realize in this results orientation is that even if he did ship and get called by say AJ, he is not a big dog and given this miracle flop hitting he more than doubles up and now has over 20 BB to actually play a little bit. As is he picks up an extra $4,900 which is great but perhaps not as great as it could have been.

As I read this I actually had to check the calendar and make certain it was not April Fools Day. I just can't believe this is the thought process of a well known pro.

End of rant...go ahead and tell me where I am wrong please!

Sunday

Don't really have time to a thorough rundown of last Sunday due to work getting pretty insane. Basically the day was a bust with the exception of the FTOPS Main Event and the satellites to that same event. Unfortunately, I finished third by 1 in the satellite challenge with 23 seats. I bricked off in the last 5 satellites I played and that would have put me over the top. I don't really remember since there was so many games but I do remember I suffered 2 pretty bad beats in those final 5 and that was the nail in the coffin. All that means is I got no bonuses for finishing 1st or 2nd in satellite challenge. That will change in the the next FTOPS in May. I will be able to put in more volume and am confident I will win some challenges and get the bonus $$$.

Other than the FTOPS Main Event I had two min cashes that were insignificant. I did skip a bunch of the tournaments I had planned to play due to the heavy satellite volume I was playing trying to win the challenge. Here is a quick rundown of the more major events:

FTOPS #24 (Bounty): Chipped up well early from original stack (started with 7,500 I think) to about 12k. Then went pretty card dead for about an hour. Finally in the third hour, I shoved AK suited over a raise and BB woke up with KK and I missed for 85% of my stack. Can't remember how I buted but was pretty uneventful.

PokerStars Sunday Warmup: First two hours pretty uneventful. Got up around 14k with a 10k starting stack. Was back down around 12k when I shoved JJ over a raiser. He called with AK and A on river busted me.

PokerStars $20 cubed: One of my new favorite events. Min cashed for ~$110. Nothing real interesting. Doubled midway through first hour with AA. Raised got one caller. Flop Axx. I bet he raises and I call. Get it all in on turn and he shows AK. Then never really played any big pots until I reshoved on a raiser with AK and he calls with QQ and holds.

PokerStars Sunday Million: I played pretty poorly in this. Folded AJ on an AATxx board when he shoved the river. This was in the first 20 mins or so. I had checked on turn thinking I would only get called by a better hand (TT, AK or AQ). Then he open shoves river and just couldn't pull the trigger. Later saw show down some shitty hands so I have no doubts now that I was good there. Was a bad fold by me I think. That hand put me down to ~6500 in chips from original 10k. Got back up to 10k but never over. In third hour, try to resteal with JTs and shoved over raiser. He called with JJ and I am crushed. Out.
Show all
FTOPS Main Event: Probably the best I have played for a whole tournament in some time. Just played real solid. This may sound strange since I basically min cashed and didn't really go super deep bu I made some tough calls and some tough laydowns. Started with ~5800 players and ~720 got paid. ABout 100 from the money an aggressive big stack bully reraised my raise. I tanked with 99 and called. Him AT and off we go to the race. Uneventful as I flopped a 9 for a set. That doubled me up. Later I made a nice laydown with QQ. UTG raised, a solid thinking well known player then reraised pretty small. This screams AA or KK. I tanked and folded. They got it in. UTG had AK and reraiser had AA. Finally, blinds were 1400/2800/200 (I think) and I had 32kish on button. VERY active player raised just in front of me to like 6200. I reshoved for 32k with AQsuited. BB tanks for a while and I don't want a call. He finally calls. Original raiser folds and BB shows QQ. I brick off and am out ~420 for about $1k. That is a standard resteal spot for me but unfortunately BB woke up with a hand.

I did win 6 more seats to FTOPS ME that day though so it was still profitable. I think I have really discovered my niche is mid stakes sit and gos ($33-$75). I can play 6-10 at a time and think this is really where I can grind out a good chunk of change. But that will have to wait until after tax season (just in time to get ready for World Series of Poker!!!)

Radiohead-First Non poker in a while

Couple people have asked me about my screenname (Fkeplastictrees) on Full Tilt and across the sites (except Poker Stars). It came from one of my favorite bands, Radiohead, and their song of the same name. Here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeowFbvpu0U

Song is insanely good even 10+ years later.

They actually performed on the Grammys this past Sunday and had the USC Marching Band supporting them. The song they performed, 15 Step, is not my favorite Radiohead song but they hit it out of the park with this performance:

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=radiohead+grammys&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=bKOVSb2sLIG4tweBlpGdCw&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#

Here is my favorite Radiohead song off the greatest album of the last 20 years IMHO Kid A:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq9t2FFh6LA

A lot of people don't "get" Radiohead and no doubt they take time to understand their music. Don't want to sound like a douche but let their music grow on you. They have influenced a lot of current popular bands like Coldplay, Keane, etc.

That is all!