A twenty table sit n go.

Only in the online poker world could you have something as silly as a sit n go where 180 players sit down within a matter of minutes, and were off to the races. I saw the tournament in the interface, and opened the lobby thinking if it looks like it might fill up in the next 30 minutes or so, I'll play just to say I did. There were about 20 players registered at the time.

Just for laughs, I looked about 3 minutes later, and there were 143 players registered already(!!) I thought what the heck, and I....played in a sit n go....something I have done 2,000 times in my life. Oh, yeah, there were 179 other people in it with me.

Double Oh yeah....I finished 174th after my kings met two hearts that decided to chase me down (K 5 of hearts to be exact).

I'm combining crap play with crap luck right now to really have a tough strecth. Looks like Oct will be one of my worst months ever. Considering Sept was my best month ever, I have to live with it. It has been a pretty wacky 2005.....definitely the most highs, and lows I have experienced in my five years of "serious" play.

Poker on the plane.

So, I was flying to NYC for my Bronco adventure, and I was on Song, which I have never flown on, but highly recommend (clearly, this is Delta's answer to JetBlue - TV at every seat, cheap tix, etc.).

Anyway, so I sit down at my seat, and notice that one of the games you can play (you can 'unlock' the games for your whole flight for $5) is Texas Holdem. I figure let take a shot, mostly curious to see if anyone else would play. I sign up, and for the first 45 mins of the flight, I am the only one signed up, I figure I have blown $5, and move on with it.

About 20 minutes later, I go back into the games section, and see a couple people playing. One thing interesting about this game is that it tells you where the other players are, for example, when i am on, it said 'Schecky, seat 12C'. So, I see the other two that are playing are sitting next to each other. So, I sit down, and having not played 'free money' poker in about 5 years, it was really fun, and funny. These two hadn't played a lot, and it was really interesting to see how they played. Here are a couple gems.

- one played checked his straight flush on the river after I had checked to him with third pair.
- another player called raises, and called me down with King high on a board with a straight, flush, and pair on board. I almost check folded the river.
- another check on the river (from the same guy) with top full house.

I know, I know, its play money....on a plane, not reality...but that's the point. I haven't played anything like this in years, and it was interesting to see how people would play, and react.

The point is, if you are on Song, the $5 poker is probably worth it to kill some time.

PokerStars Caribbean Adventure qualifier

I always tell people that on balance I get pretty unlucky, or at least take some pretty bad beats. Everyone always shrugs me off, 'Yeah, we've heard it all before, etc.' I am loathe to tell bad beat stories, so I will simply present the hand history of my latest gem. The ONE OUTER!!!! LOL!!! Would anyone believe this is the third one outer I have taken this year....and I don't play very often. Anyway, Enjoy. Guess I won't be going to the Bahamas....yet :)

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PokerStars Game #2754508685: Tournament #13192390, Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2005/10/08 - 12:26:42 (ET)Table '13192390 3' Seat #5 is the button
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Schecky [As Ah]magyar: folds GixxerJoe: folds Mangudai: folds quikmic: folds donbrennan: folds ClaudioReyna: folds SongheJe: calls 15Schecky: checks *** FLOP *** [3d 2d 2c]SongheJe: bets 30Schecky: raises 60 to 90SongheJe: calls 60*** TURN *** [3d 2d 2c] [Ad]SongheJe: bets 30Schecky: raises 60 to 90SongheJe: raises 900 to 990Schecky: raises 230 to 1220 and is all-inSongheJe: calls 230*** RIVER *** [3d 2d 2c Ad] [4d]*** SHOW DOWN ***SongheJe: shows [6d 5d] (a straight flush, Deuce to Six)

Schecky: shows [As Ah] (a full house, Aces full of Deuces)SongheJe collected 2680 from potClaudioReyna said, "omg"*** SUMMARY ***Total pot 2680 Rake 0 Board [3d 2d 2c Ad 4d]Seat 1: GixxerJoe folded before Flop (didn't bet)Seat 2: Mangudai folded before Flop (didn't bet)Seat 3: quikmic folded before Flop (didn't bet)Seat 4: donbrennan folded before Flop (didn't bet)Seat 5: ClaudioReyna (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)Seat 6: SongheJe (small blind) showed [6d 5d] and won (2680) with a straight flush, Deuce to SixSeat 7: Schecky (big blind) showed [As Ah] and lost with a full house, Aces full of DeucesSeat 8: magyar folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Caption contest

OK, so I have never posted photos to a blog....Let's see how this goes. We will have a caption contest. Whoever wins the caption contest (I am the judge) wins their choice of three prizes. These pics are from the World Masters in London. Leave your captions in the comments section at the bottom of this entry.

The prize choices are:
1) a PokerNews T-shirt
2) $20 cash
3) My undying respect. (not available to all participants)

Here we go. Photo # 1

My caption is. 'Fire Bad!.....Chips Good!'

Next, we have this gem of a selection....

My caption is this: "Wow, I have a lot of chips. I wonder how much hair plugs cost?"

OK....Get to it, don't let me down!

Short Stack Blues...

Well, as anticipated, I am out quickly. Of course I start under the gun, so I had no time to wait for anything. I found 67 of diamonds first hand, and actually considered it. I folded, and a guy raised, showing AK of…..diamonds. Then through the blinds with nothing. I find A 4 in middle position, and chuck it in. A good Swedish player to my left moves over the top, and I stand up and put my jacket on. He shows QQ, and I do not hit my three outer, and I am done. 23rd place – 4,000 pound (about $7,100).

Overall, this was a fun experience. I always seem to have these 90 minute (in this case three hour) stretches where I find nothing but rags, or if I do have a semi hand, a player has already raised before me, and I can’t play. I manage to get myself grinded down to short stack status. I guess to get better, I have to figure out how to survive these stretches better. I had chips, and was probably top ten in chip count for the second thru fourth hour of the tournament, but then I went cold, and had to work the short stack for the last two hours of the night.

Whatever…………winning two seats into this event, and cashing was a nice experience. London isn’t too cold (mind you, I’m not really looking to wander around outside right now, but it isn’t miserable to get where you need to go), and I’m glad to come back here (been here a dozen times, but not in 6 or 7 years).

Off to Brick Lane tonight, then meetings all day tomorrow, and Tuesday. Thanks for checking out EuroShecky, and I will try to blog more as I keep going for these EPT things. Next one is Oct 28th in Dublin.

John

Slithering into the money....

First of all, thanks to Jen and Brad for making some kind of updates possible. It was a long day of poker, and now I am through to the final day (and in the money), but unfortunately, I went really card dead the last three hours of play, and consider myself lucky that I didn’t get called on a couple of my all ins down the stretch. Plus, there was one guy who was pitifully short, and although I am loathe to just wait my way into the money, in this specific situation, I think it made sense.

So, here I sit, 23rd out of 24 players in chip count. First prize is $550,000, but I have a lottery-esque chance of getting there. The nice thing about where I sit is I have zero expectation past where I’m at now….so, I’ll either double up twice in the first 30 minutes, and give myself a chance, or take my 4,000 Pound ($7,100), and go have a nice day.

Here is what I remember.

I was very pleased to see only one name I recognized at my starting table (Luca Pagano), and he was to my right. The table was a very tight, timid table, and while that may not bode well to get yourself a monster stack, it is good to build chips. I was clipped down to 5,000 chips (we started with 10,000) almost right away, after I tried to trap a guy by limping from the small blind, and after I made two pair on the river, he had made a wheel.

From there I got it back up pretty quickly. I had AA once, and it held up. I decided to flip for all my money with QQ (the guy who re-raised me was the only guy at the table shifting a lot of chips), and the first card off was a Q. Now at about 25,000, I took the aforementioned Mr Pagano out with AK, after I put him on a move from the cutoff. He was on a move with A 4, and I didn’t get unlucky, and off I went. One hand that came up was crucial. There was this wild Czech kid who sat down at our table pretty short stacked…maybe 6,000. He was moving in every third hand. On this one hand Jac Arama (aka Schmulka’s hero) raised it to 3,000, and the kid moved all in for about 10,000 (Jac had about 20,000 left). I looked down at AK suited, knew the kid was on a move, and hoped Jac didn’t have a monster. I moved my stack in, which had Jac pretty much covered. Jac debated for along time, and finally folded. It was a good thing he did fold, because a river King (the kid had 8 10, and caught an 8 on the flop) would have made Jac a flush, but was also the card I needed to knock the Czech out. That put me at about 45,000, and I was the clear chip leader at the table. Just when I was able to take advantage of having the big stack at the table, they moved a guy with a mountain onto our table (of course to my left). I got it up to about 55,000 with about 30 people left (118 started, twelve made the money)….and then proceeded to go on a Caldwell-esque dead card run the likes of which haven’t been seen in the Vic for a long time (OK, I exaggerate, but it really sucked) I saw ONE pair, and zero big Aces the last three hours of the tournament. I actually feel kind of lucky to be where I am at. I was making “creative” moves down the stretch with hands like 8 10 suited (of course!), and just got lucky that I never ran into a hand.

So, I wish I could write for hours about this day, but I slept so late that I actually have to hustle to make my 2:30 pm start time right now. Thanks to everyone for their support, and wish me luck….I’ll need a lot of it early.

Out…

Live from the Vic, Part III

20 players left and John is still IN. I think he has more than 50k. He got a nice save about 20 minutes ago. As Brad told me...

John was in the Big Blind when UTG (under the gun, or first to act) raised 3x the BB. John called and the flop came QTT. John checked and the other guy bet. John raised. The other guy sat there thinking about it for five whole minutes--and then folded showing AQ. John took the pot without showing his cards.

OK, new report. John's stack hasn't changed much since then. He has enough chips to get him down to the money, but he'll have to do some work as there are only 2-3 short stacks with eight left to go till quitting time. And there are a lot of players with the same amount as him. (This just in from Brad)

I don't know if I should go in there to watch, or not...Well, if I do, I better show up with a mineral water, I know that much!

Live from the Vic, Part II

Jen again...John is still IN. It's almost midnight our time. He's still at the same table he's been at all day. They've cut the field down to 30ish, maybe a little less, and they're playing to 12. I don't know what will happen if 4am rolls around and they still have more than 12 players. I guess we'll see.

He came out on a 15 minute break a little while ago and said he had 45k, which is down from 55k. I just went and took a look (there's no room for me to hang out there full time, even if I wanted to be that girl) and the stack is small, but there are plenty of 5k blue chips in it. Brad says he's about average, and the guy standing next to me who was much taller than me took a second look and said that he was better than average. In fact, he was a little surprised that I would call my guy average and asked if I wanted to rate him properly. 1-10 he asked....

Still, John seems to be fine. He went for a short walk on the break and didn't need anything. I know he'd like to have more chips and as he headed back to the table said he was going to go get some.

Meanwhile, I've gotten my computer up here and am trying to do some work. I don't have any internet access, but the GutShot boys are fun. Steve, one of their writers, is really tripped out because he realized while we were talking that he reads my blog for travel writers, Written Road. I don't understand why this is weird for him, but hey, if he want's to be freaked out, that's fine with me. He's buying the coffees.

But lets get back to John, cheers to 4am! You can do it, John.

Live from the Vic

Jen, here. Brad Willis, the blogger for PokerStars.com, was kind enough to let me use his computer while he's off taking pictures. I made it to the Vic in time for the dinner break and found John. He's a little below average at 17k. His PokerNews cohorts Tony G and Noah B are already out. We ate at a table with three other players who were still in, and one who wasn't. One of my faves, Joe "the Elegance" Beevers is still in. Kathy Liebert is also still in. But now I have a new guy to add to my list. Stewart from Edinburgh. He was friendly and I'd be happy if he kept going, but didn't beat John, of course. This is only his second live tourney....power of winning a seat online.

So, back to John...he's in a good mood. Doesn't seem too tired, and is still cracking jokes. He says he's been catching cards, but I think he only doubled up once when his queens beat a guy with AK. Lets hope his luck stays steady.

He's in a back room where they aren't really allowing people on the rail. But Brad seems to think that'll change as the night widdles people down to two tables. When John makes it to midnight, things will get more interesting. Lets not forget, they're playing till 4am.

Ok, luck to John. Is there anybody out there reading? Come on now...