Runner-Runner-Rebuy

I'm so friggen' torn about the NHL playoffs this year. After some good runs the past few years, my beloved Sabres failed to make the cut. If it was the NFL, I would probably stop caring. When the Bills fail to make the playoffs (ummmm, every year) I usually could care less about what is going on. That's mostly because I like the Bills more than I actually like football. And I only follow other NFL teams for fantasy sports reasons. And to watch the Patriots blow it. When the Pats went 19-No, you would have thought the Bills just won the Superbowl the way people were celebrating at my Superbowl party.

But hockey is different. I love it. I watch it every night during playoff season wether the Sabres make it or not. The only thing to worry about is to find a team to root for. For me, that team was the Washington Capitals. Alex Ovechkin is amazing. I get to see him live a few times a year when the caps come to Buffalo, and let me say, right now, he is the next great one, not Sidney Crosby. Sidney is a great all around player, and could become the next great one I guess, but no one I have ever seen play live comes close to the offensive skills of Alex Ovechkin. I only saw Gretzky play live once he was past his prime. Alex is the real deal, and the run the Caps went on to make the playoffs got me rooting for them.

A first round match up against the Flyers sealed the deal for who I was rooting for. The Broad Street Bullies are one of my most hated teams. A historically nasty team, lacking in talent, generous in cheap shots and dirty play, and fans that boo Santa Claus. There is not really anything to like about any Philadelphia team. I fully expected the Caps to walk through the Flyers. The flyers never go anywhere in the playoffs. Well, it was a great series that went 7 games, with 2 OTs and the Flyers end up victorious. Fuck.

In the meantime, the crappy Boston Bruins take it 7 games against what looked like an unstoppable Montreal Canadians team. Well, as the Sabres know, 1st seed sucks. You end up not coming prepared. The Habs ended up taking the series from the Bruins, but I knew they were not going to get much further. I was really rooting for the Bruins, because I love it when Canadian teams don't win the cup (mostly because of the asshole Leafs fans that invade our arena whenever TO plays the Sabres). Of course I was then hoping the Bruins would get bounced the next round because Fuck Boston and all their recent success.

Que Flyers vs. Habs. This was getting interesting, I really liked what I saw out of the Flyers in round one, and as round two went on, I found myself really rooting for Marty Biron and Daniel Briere, two ex sabers who went the way of free agency. And also two guys who are the nicest, most sincere hockey players that give back to the fans in more ways than saves and goals. I want these guys to win, but at the same time I want the flyers to suck it. They crush the Habs, as expected, and are now in the conference finals against the Penguins.

At first I was really exited for Marty and Danny, we had some great chances to win the Cup with them the past few years in Buffalo, just fell a little short, and these guys deserve it. But then visions of them lifting the Cup in Flyers jerseys came to mind and I got sick to my stomach. Umberger doesn't deserve it. Hatcher, Upshall, and Knuble don't deserve it. Flyers ownership doesn't deserve it. And most of all, Philly fans don't deserve it. To see Marty and Danny lift the cup for the despised Flyers would break me. At least no Canadian teams are left.

Here's how I see the rest of the playoffs working out.

Flyers vs. Pens - Pens take it in 6. Malkin and Crosby are just to strong for the Flyers. If the Flyers focus on Fluery's glove side, they can take it to seven games, but will ultimately be defeated. Pens advance to Cup Finals.

Dallas vs. Detroit - Detroit in 5 provided Osgood stays healthy. If Osgood gives up 2 games in the first 4, Hasek comes back in and his rusty old groin will drop the next two. Osgood however, will stay healthy and Detroit will advance to Cup finals against Pittsburgh.

Cup Finals - Pens vs. Detroit - This will be a great series that will go 7 games with stellar goaltending from Osgood going up against great scorers Malkin and Crosby. I pick Pens in 7.

Conference finals kick off Thursday on NBC and Versus, I'll be rooting for the Pens.

It has been a crazy busy 2 weeks for me. Moved into the new house, and immediately demo the kitchen. Building a new kitchen is a pain in the ass.

Floor tile is laid. Electricity has been re-run. Plumbing? Check. Wall cabinets competed and installed. Base cabinets in progress. The new appliances arrive tomorrow, and hopefully by Thursday we will be measuring for the counter-top.

Been running hot and cold in the blogger tourneys. Another 2nd and a 5th in the bodonkey the past few weeks. Thats puts me solidly up there in the points, and barring disaster, I should make it into the bodog TOC.

Made 2nd in the Skills game last week (Razz). I'm running out of time to win a FT TOC seat. So I really need to focus the next few weeks.

Currently playing the MATH with a smallish stack. Arrgggg. Make that, a small stack.

Smaller still.....

I have two comics in the works for a couple a MATH bustouts from weeks ago. One will feature Riggstad, and the other Surflexus.

ohhhh....double up when I suck out on Donkette.

ahhhh.....back down when AQ runs into Donkette's JJ.

Approaching second break with 26 runners left and me 2nd dank pos....correction - out in 26th. Out with A5 vs A7 in the blinds with shortstack. I hate wonka.

Fcuk.

Booked my trip to Vegas. June 11th-15th. Staying at Rio. Planning on playing $2000 NLH event. If I get bounced before 5pm on Friday, I will probably play $1500 Razz event.

It seems like there are going to be quite a few bloggers around that weekend. I've been waiting for some A-lister to start up some kind of email list for people going on the Blogger Mulligan weekend, as Astin put it. No such luck so far, so I may take on this task myself. As far as I know these are the people are either going the second weekend in June, have interest in going, or are going to be/are living in Vegas.

Myself
Hoyazo
PirateLawyer
Astin
CK
F-Train
BamBam
LJ
CMitch
Fuel
Miami Don
Pauly
Change100
Lucko
Chad
Carson
Lightning36

I think at least a few of us are planning on the $2000 NLH event. I'm too tired to look up all these email addresses right now, but if someone else doesn't take charge by the time I'm done with work tomorrow, I'll send something around to exchange cell#'s and maybe set up a few times/places to meet up over the course of the planned extended weekend.

If your not on this list and want to be, drop a comment. If your on this list and there is no way for me to figure out your email address from your blog and you want to be on the mailing list, drop a comment. If your on this list, and know I already have your email address, and you DON'T want to be contacted in regards to the Blogger Mulligan Weekend, too bad, you'll just have to label me as spam.

There's only a few more events left in the FT TOC 3. It's not looking good for me. Admittedly, early on in the TOC I had been playing like shit. And there have been a few events here and there that I just couldn't maintain my interest in.

But more recently, I have buckled down and played much better. I'm very satisfied with the decisions I'm making, and I keep getting it in good, only to have one of the wonkas suck out on the river.

It isn't over yet, but it's looking pretty grim. The BoDonkey on the other hand, has gone great. The interface at BoDog sucks, but the structure of the tourney is fantastic. With so much more play, I don't get myself into these all-in situations I find myself in on FT. I'm sitting in 5th place right now with 2 events to go. I have not done the calculation, but I might be a lock given the average number of points awarded in each tourney.

Vegas plans are shaping up. I'll be there for the Blogger Mulligan Weekend along with a bunch of other bloggers making it out the second weekend in June. I sent out an email earlier today with a spreadsheet. I would def love to see any of you who are out there that weekend, so please let me know if you'll be there and I didn't include you on the email.

My plans are -

Arrive Wednesday June 11th 7pm. Check into Rio. Get some dinner. Anyone interested in Dinner on wednesday? After dinner, hit the amazon room for some cash games/sats. Bumble around for a bit, and hope to run into some people I know.

Thursday - Play in $2000 NLH event. Thursday night at one of the Rio bars anyone? Be a good chance maybe to catch up with some of the folks cover the series....

Friday - If knocked out of NLE event, play Razz event.

Sat - Assuming I'm no longer in any WSOP event - food, table games, cash games, prop bets?

Sun - same as Sat - leave 5pm for home.

I briefly mentioned in my last post that I was doing pretty well in the bodog poker blogger tournament online. I've had a pretty good run in this tourney. I'm sitting in 5th place, but now that I've done the calculations, it doesn't look like I'm a lock to make it into the Championship Tourney.

Before I get into the specifics, I just want to thank Smokkee for setting this thing up, and Bodog for giving us bloggers another way to win our seats to the Main Event. Not to mention the sweet overlay bonuses they have been putting into the tourneys every week. I'm sure you've heard this before, but it is pretty crazy that they are adding an extra T$109 for 1st through 5th, and the 5 bubblers get a buy-in to the following weeks tourney. And the structure is great. I feel like I can play poker, as opposed to things becoming a pushfest one hour in.

I started on Bodog with a really small amount in my account, basically, I just wanted to play in the blogger tourney, but the other day I realized that just by playing the blogger tourney, I had amassed almost a grand in cash and tourney credits. I figured I might as well try some other tourneys too, and thats when I realized the crazy overlays going on in many of the WSOP sats and most of the daily guarantees. 28 players in in a $250 buy-in main event package? That's 4K in overlay. Then I saw one with 56 players. It was also a $250 buy-in, with one seat guaranteed. 56 * 250 = $14000. Ok, so one seat, and 2K in payouts right? Nope, they gave two 12K packages. They round up!!! That's 10K in overlay. I couldn't believe it.

I tried some cash games over the weekend with some good success there as well. It was only a few sessions, but my initial feeling is that there are some REALLY weak players at the 2-4 NLH tables. Anyway, I suggest you give it a try. I've had some issues in the past with the interface, but the table selection is so good, I've mostly forgotten about the interface. I'd rather be winning with a so-so interface, than losing with a great one.

Back to the Bodonkey tourney - It would be a long-shot for me to get knocked out, but it is possible. With two tourneys remaining there are actually a surprising amount of points up for grabs. In fact, it looks like its possible for someone to come and win the next 2 and go from zero points to making it into the TOC. This can only happen if a few more people show up tonight and next week than the normal amount.

With an average field of 45 players, a total of about 800 points are given out (based on the points formulae they use). Thats 1600 points given out in the next 2 tourneys. I think 1st though 3rd are a lock, and 4th through 10th are pretty close (the stars would need to align just right to knock those places out), but 11th through 18th are easily up for grabs. 17th and 18th could potentially go to someone currently with zero points if they could manage back to back wins, and a slightly larger than average group comes out to play.

In any case, it has been a fun ride, and I hope I don't blow it and somehow get knocked out of the top 18. Thanks again to Smokkee. I'll buy you a beer (or 5) at the Blogger Mulligan Weekend.

See you all tonight at the tables....

I went up to Seneca Niagara Casino on Friday night to play some live cash games and ended up with the worst bad beat I've taken in a long time.

I get up there at around 9pm, and of course the list is really long, so I have them put me on for 2/5 (10 to bring in) NLH $1000 max, and I grab a pager. I needed to get a new players card, because now (finally) they can be used to get rated while playing poker. After taking care of that, I wandered around the casino for a bit, and eventually sat at a $10 Caribbean Stud table. Down $100 in less than 5 minutes. Not a single winning hand, so I wander some more.

Settle at a .25c video poker machine. Drop in a twenty. Play max credits, don't get paid on a single hand. Drop another $20. Repeat. Not a single pair of Jacks or Better. At this point I contemplate just going back to the poker room and wait there. But instead, I drop another $20 and just play single credit, so I can kill some time, and not toss tons of money into the casino coffers. I hate playing single credit, because even when you make quads you don't get paid very much, but I can't sit in a casino and not gamble.

So I'm playing single credit Jacks or Better and on my third hand I hit -
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The fucking Royal. For a whopping 250 credits. $62.50. I start swearing at the top of my lungs and nearly punch the machine. The old ladies around me couldn't understand why I was so pissed to hit the Royal.

I NEVER play single credit. And now 3 hands into switching to single credit play I hit the Royal (first time for me on a machine), and get a measly $62.50, instead of the $1000 plus $9500 progressive that was god-damned owed to me as far as I was concerned. I almost took a swing at the old lady who told me I should just be excited to hit a Royal at all.

Steam turned into laughter a few minutes later, and I snapped the above photo with my phone, just before my pager went off for an open seat.