[octaveshift]

Spent the day at Foxwoods playing their "Act" STTs, which are like Party steps. (There are 3 Acts, with the 3rd winning a seat into the 10k WPT event at Foxwoods.)

$60 gets you into an Act 1 with t1000, and 15 minute blinds starting at 25/25. It's certainly not an ideal structure, as the dealers there suck, and everybody thinks it's the god damned final table of the main event, so they take forever. We averaged about 7 hands per level, which is lame.

First tourney: The mega-tanned 70-year-old submarine-veteran with skin like leather (on my right) picks up aces twice and doubles through in L1. Yeow.

I fold all the way to level 3, when I find AA UTG. Figuring that if I raise, people will run for the hills, I limp instead, planning for a limp/reraise. Of course, this doesn't happen, and 4 people decide to limp behind me. SB folds, so we are 5-handed to the flop. (Note to self: You are so goddamned stupid sometimes.)

Flop is AKJ, and I bet the pot. I get one caller, who I put on a weak ace, or something like JT. (Whatever it is, he wants to play.) Turn is a 2. I make a 1/3 pot probe bet, and he calls. River is an 8. At this point, I figure I will check, feigning a missed draw, and hope he bluffs at the pot. If he has QT, so be it. He checks behind, I table my cards, he says "jesus christ!" and he throws his cards into the muck. Sweet. I have no idea WTF he had.

Anyway, we end up 4-handed L4 and I am the 2nd stack. Shorty pushes into me, and I find KK. I push over the top, and he tables ATs. "Here comes the suckout." I say. Sure enough, he turns a flush, and I am crippled. I try to steal my way back into contention, but the BB woke up with AT and I was eliminated.

I don't remember much about the next 3 tourneys because I didn't take any notes on them. I do know that the blinds and fast levels made it imperative to get a healthy stack by L4. This usually required some gamb00ling, and I just couldn't get lucky. My AK ran into KK in one, and my AQ fell to TT in another. Needless to say, I didn't win any.

So, at this point I was down $240 and feeling pretty bummed. I decide I am not playing my best, and decide to go reset my brain by playing roulette.

Heh. Roulette is so terrible. It's like the old science films of the rats in a cage, pushing the button to get cocaine. push-push-*coke*-push-push-*coke*

I throw a hundo on the felt and get 100 single chips. I use a betting system that I read about a long time ago that will allegedly make your money last longer than any other way of playing. All I can say is that I must be in the + side of variance, because it seems to work whenever I do it. (I think it's called "Crazy 8" but I am not sure. You basiclaly bet the same 8 numbers until one hits. If it hits, you change to new numbers. If 4 spins go by with no hits, you change to another set too.)

Well, about 30 minutes later I am up $500, so I decide to cash out and head back to the poker room.

I sign up for an Act 2 ($225), an Act 1, and a double shootout ($120), planning to play whichever opens up first.

I end up in Act 1. There was this CRAZY old guy, with like *zero* teeth, and a discman with ONE headphone. (the other was broken off the band, and he kept it in his chest pocket.) I felt bad for the guy, because clearly he is older than dirt, blind as a bat, and deaf to boot.

The very first hand, he is UTG, and pops it to 250. (That's 10x BB.) We all fold, and I think "Oh jesus. This ought to be fun."

Second hand, 4 limpers, and he raises to 300 from the BB. Everyone folds. Heh.

Anyway, this guy is always asking assloads of questions because he CAN'T HEAR A [censored] THING ANYWAY **AND** HE IS WEARING A GOD DAMNED DISCMAN. I mean, he was a nice enough guy, and god bless his soul, I think he was there just for the company, but when you have 15-minute blinds, I really don't appreciate him calling raises, then pulling them back when someone tells him that he hasn't put enough in. (This results in a floorperson being called over, and subsequent shouting match.)

Tick tock! The blinds keep climbing!

Old guy gets broke, and I manage to run up a solid stack, and we are 4-handed, L4. Here is the hand that broke me, and I am still kicking myself for it.

Blinds: 100/200

Appx chip counts. Top 2 advance to next step:

UTG: t4000
Button: t2100
SB: t1100
Hero: t2800

Dealt to hero: KhTh

UTG Folds. Button calls. SB calls. Hero checks.
(I should of raised here. I never allow limpers on my BB online, and I shouldn't do it in real life either.)

Flop is QdJh8c

SB checks. Pot is 600, and I bet the pot, making it t1200. Button pushes his 1900 into the pot, making it 3100 total, and 1900 for me to call...

Which I DO?!??!
WTF!?
WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY?

I table my KQ shpowing the OESD, and villain tables T8. (Gonzo push, IMO, but a stupid call on my part.)

I get no help, and I decide to call it a day.

Naturally, I come home, and fire up a 55, and immediately proceed to have my set of jacks cracked by two nines that rivered a straight. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Anyway, that's about it. I am still pretty amped from the day of play, so I am finding it hard to sleep...

On a related note: All of the guys that wore sunglasses never made it past L3. Oh, and there was some guy that looking like a miniature Fossilman, with the same glasses, and a WPT hat. He seemed OK, but it was kind of sad to see him so blatantly trying to make people think he was Raymer.

One more thing. In a live game, if you are going to raise, BE SURE YOU SAY RAISE. I pissed off this one guy by taking half his stack, and then on the next hand found TT in LP. There were 4 limpers, and I pushed my chips in without saying "raise", and the little steaming douchebag goes "THAT'S A CALL! THAT'S A CALL!" So, everyone gets to see the flop for cheap, which is something like 345h. I make a feeble stab at the pot, and the BB pushes. I fold and he shows me a flopped straight.

Heh. Mea culpa.