Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Blogger Skillz Game Victory -- and Where the hell have I been?

Tonight's Blogger Skillz Game (Omaha) victory actually made me get off my duff and post. The nice thing about the victory was that the other bloggers in at the end -- bayne_s, PirateLawyer, and NumbBono -- are all tough hombres. It looked like I was about to bubble when my patience paid off. A little luck never hurts either.

I can't say the same for tonight's Bodonkey. I was sailing along as one of the chip leaders when I got sucked out on big time. In the big hand, I had a set of 7's after the flop -- middle set. There were two others in the hand. I went all in (I had both players covered) and much to my surprise, both players called! The first had bottom set and the other had pocket Aces which he couldn't lay down. So ... even with two guys all in ahead of him and only having an overpair after the flop, the guy with Aces hits a two-outer on the river and sends me back in the pack instead of being the chip leader. I eventually bubbled the tournament in 6th place -- a bitter pill to swallow, for sure.

The night before, I finished 88th out of 1,400 in the Full Tilt $28,000 Guarantee. K-7 sucking out against my A-K kept me from making a deeper run.

And ... last week I finished 5th out of over 800 at a private freeroll, scoring a nice $330+ score.

November is one of the busiest months in my job and I have been very busy. I'll update my blog within a few days to talk about things going on in my life.


12 Comments:

Blogger SirFWALGMan said...

good job lightbulb

9:35 AM  
Blogger Shrike said...

Congrats on the win, even if the merit of your strategy of calling a raise with 9876 when stacks are short eludes me. -)

-PL

11:04 AM  
Blogger Mondogarage said...

Congrats on some really good recent scores! Glad to see you're doing well -- post more often!

11:26 AM  
Blogger Bayne_S said...

nice run

12:04 PM  
Blogger Memphis MOJO said...

congrats on your recent run!

12:09 PM  
Blogger CEMfromMD said...

Great job Lightning. Congradulation on the recent success, and keep it up!!

12:31 PM  
Blogger lightning36 said...

To answer PirateLawyer's inquiry ...

I had to fight like hell to get from short stack to a viable chance to win. I knew I was playing two exceptionally good players. It was time to get tricky.

In Omaha (Hi only of course -- certainly not H/L), a group of middle connectors is like a stealth bomb. I had a discounted call since I was in one of the blinds and I knew that PL probably had a pretty good hand. My hope was that he had mostly high cards and the flop would hit the middle, giving me a chance to kick him in the nutsack. As luck would have it, I got a great flop. No way he would see what is coming.If the flop was high cards, I get away easily.

So ... there it is. The same can be said for hands like Q-10sooted in NL Hold Em. If the flop is right...

1:45 PM  
Blogger Shrike said...

I understand the thought process behind your preflop call, but you do realize that you're not a money favourite on that flop?

I love making that play in a deeper-stacked cash game, but I think it's -EV in the late stages of a tournament with those stack sizes.

-PL

3:09 PM  
Blogger Shrike said...

Oh, and please don't interpret my remarks as sour grapes. I just like talking poker theory.

I think your line is definitely defensible if stacks are deeper. But when you say "no way he would see what's coming" ... well, that's just not relevant. When I lead for a pot-sized bet with the overpair on the flop, I'm never folding, and you still have to improve as a small 'dog.

-PL

3:11 PM  
Blogger lightning36 said...

Well PirateLawyer, that is why poker players are different. Some players go exclusively by the numbers. I don't.

You would probably never make that play. I would. I was willing to take some risk with the hope of a big payoff. It worked. If it didn't, I would have folded to a raise, regrouped my stack, and gone from there.

Of course, I wonder why you pushed with 5-5, knowing Champ almost certainly had you crushed (he had a pair of Aces, if you recall). Did I miss something?

At least we are still ahead of Waffles on the Skillz leaderboard. : o )

3:38 PM  
Blogger Shrike said...

With regards to the 5532 hand vs. AAxx: my stack was super-short. If I flat call OTB and see the flop (all low cards, flush draw + straight draw) I get it allin. However my stack size was awkward so I just shoved it in preflop and prayed.

Back to the other hand ... you'd expect to flop one pair about 3/4ths of the time. The question becomes how often do you flop better than that, because you have to know that 1pr isn't good enough to win.

Again, I just don't think the stacks were deep enough to warrant the call, because you can't win enough chips off me often enough for it to be profitable in the final three of a tournament. Change the context to a cash game with deeper stacks and I'd have an entirely different opinion.

-PL

4:15 PM  
Blogger BamBam said...

Nice run in several events Light!

6:45 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home