Congrats to Pauly

From Pokernews:


Dr. Pauly Eliminated in 119th Place

Erica Schoenberg raises from middle position to 9,000, Paul McGuire moves all in for 30,000, and Schoenberg calls with {9-Clubs}{9-Spades}. McGuire shows {A-Diamonds}{9-Diamonds}, and he'll need to improve to stay alive.

The flop comes {Q-Diamonds}{5-Clubs}{4-Diamonds}, and McGuire picks up a diamond flush draw. The turn card is the {3-Clubs}, and McGuire also picks up a gutshot straight draw, and he has 15 outs going to the river.

But the last card is the {8-Clubs}, and Schoenberg wins the pot with her pocket nines. Paul 'Dr. Pauly' McGuire is eliminated in 119th place, earning $4,740. He also receives a bonus prize -- a hug from his friend Erica Schoenberg.

Hammah

Dr. Pauly Drops The Hammer

Paul McGuire raised to 700 from the button and the big blind called. The flop was {K-Hearts}{Q-Clubs}{3-Spades}. The big blind checked, McGuire bet 1,500 and the big blind called. The turn was the {6-Clubs}. McGuire fired out another 2,000 and the big blind folded.

McGuire showed {2-Hearts}{7-Spades}, a.k.a. "The Hammer" and dragged the pot with his bluff. He was up to 10,500 after the hand.

Dr. Pauly in the money

So I was perusing the latest event #38 and saw a very familiar face near the top. Our own Dr. Pauly is in the money and into day two of the event. This will be the most followed event in my opinion, forget about the HORSE event. Head to PokerNews for all the details.

Donkey hand followed by Donkey chat

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t15/t30
9 players
Converter


Stack sizes:
UTG Donkey: t1470
UTG+1: t1725
MP1: t1500
MP2: t1500
MP3: t1500
CO: t1500
Hero: t1485
SB: t1320
BB: t1500


Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is Button with J♦ 2♠
UTG Donkey raises to t105, 5 folds, Hero folds, SB raises all-in t1320, BB folds, UTG Donkey calls t1215 (pot was t1455).


Flop: 9♣ K♥ Q♠ (t2670, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: t2670)



Turn: A♣ (t2670, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: t2670)



River: 6♦ (t2670, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: t2670)



Results:

SB showed Kc Ks
UTG Donkey showed Jh Ad

Final pot: t2670

UTG +1: how come you suck so bad?
UTG Donkey: I thought he might be pushing with a 10


I thought it was funny, although I have a feeling he wasn't joking.


*Edit* Ended up winning which was good for $49.50

Strike me down

I know this one will get me the scorn of the (Full Tilt) Poker Gods, but I am running really well. Yesterday I was up $70 at $1/2 Limit before blowing about $85 on tournament buy-ins that didn't pan out. Today I am up $130 at the $1/2 and $2/4 Omaha Hi/Lo tables. I switched out to Omaha for a change in scenery from the past couple weeks and it has served me well. We'll see if this current trend sticks. Good luck at the tables. I'll be keeping up with PokerNews to see if Phil Hellmuth can win his 12th Bracelet tonight. (That and doing a shitload of homework with a baby on my chest).

Baby Reagan

Two days early was not in the plans. I was not expecting to be in the hospital so early on Saturday morning. We got to the hospital at 8:15 and the baby was born at 8:36. She is beautiful, 7 lbs 15 oz, 20 in long and very healthy. She is definitely the best father's day present I could have received. Happy Father's day for all those dad's out there.

Baby

Well, the good wife is due on Monday. Both of our other girls were 10 days late so it could still be some time, but this day really came fast. My new job starts on Monday too and thankfully it is the last day for school. So a busy week, but very rewarding. All I want for Father's day is to relax :) Hope everyone has a great weekend and happy father's day to all you Dad's out there.

Back to playing pokah

Had a good night at the tables last night. I started by winning a token in an $8 SNG, and then got involved in a few tournaments at the same time. The first was a 45 person SNG where I was able to get a big chip lead early. The late game proved fatal though as I ended up running tens into jacks, 8's into 9's and finally 2's into 7's to put me out in 11th.

During that time I also played a PLH tourney where I was a big stack until the end. With 14 players left (9 getting paid) and blinds at 150/300 I picked up Aces UTG. I raised pot, was reraised by another big stack and pushed. Got called by QQ who spiked a Q on the flop. That crippled me, but if I would have won that pot and I'd sitting on a monster stack heading into the final table.

Also played the $75 token race where I was able to get a big stack early, battle from being short in the middle, then ended up being a monster stack on the bubble. I finally got to be that guy who raised every hand for 2 orbits as everyone folded into a token. I didn't get called once and only the very shortest stack at our table didn't get a token.

After doing about 4 hours of homework I played a $75 9-person SNG to finish off the night. I didn't realize it was a turbo tournament until it started, so we had a lot of people playing fast. I was able to stay around 1500 chips until we got down to 6 people. I got up to 2500 by busting a short stack when he had 8's to my K's. After a few more hands we were on the bubble with 1st getting $310, 2nd getting $180 and 3rd getting $115 (approximately). I was sitting on 2000 chips along with another guy. One guy was using his entire time bank every hand to make the blinds go up faster, he had 6000 and another guy had 3500. With blinds at 120/240 it turned into me and the other short stack pushing a lot of hands from the CO/Button with the big stack never playing and the other stack only getting involved a couple times. The other guy ended up pushing 63o into Q's and we had busted the bubble.

I pushed 1500 chips into the big stack with K9 v. A9 and ended up spiking a King on the river. The two bigger stacks tangled on a harmless flop, both had flush draws which got there on the turn with the bigger stack prevailing. Heads up I was down 4-1 when I sucked out again. I had pushed Q7 into K7 and caught another river card. After that I raised every hand until he was down to 2000 chips with 300/600 blinds. We ended up getting it all in with my KJ and his A9. I flopped a Jack and pocketed the $310 after investing $14. Would have been nice to cash in the other two tourneys as well, but I played well in each and maybe next time I'll have some better luck.

Classic Tuff Fish

I cannot get enough of this guy. This is the original that I figure I'd repost since I've been getting a lot of hits. Here it is.

Poker Letter

One of the newest sites that I've added to my list for bloglines every morning is PokerLetter. Working in the government I can always tell when I find a good site when they end up on the "Access Denied" List. This includes the likes of Alcanthang, Pauly and Pokerworks. So, when I come across another such site I am always looking forward to getting the updates from home. PokerLetter does not disappoint, some of the more interesting articles that I've read over the last month have been their "5 best pros without a bracelet" series, their review of Full Tilt Poker Download software, and their "2007 World Series of Poker Players to Watch". The site is constantly updated and has been elevated to the top rung of reads for the morning.

If you need their Full Tilt Poker Bonus Code, refer to their Full Tilt Poker section. PokerLetter is the sponsor of this post and I'm proud to pass them along as someone you should add to your list of daily readings. Have a great week everyone.

Home game

A few weeks ago I was invited to a home game that was held at a friends house. First week I play they have 15 players and end up finishing 2nd for $120 (buyin was $25 with rebuys up to first hour) The tournament had a very fast structure, but you got a lot of chips and always a lot of action. So this past Friday I play again, bigger turnout, more rebuys. I am chip leader throughout the tourney from the first hand and end up taking first for $350. Looking forward to next Friday and to keep the streak going, if anyone is in the area you are more than welcome to come as they are always looking for a bigger game. Back with more later.

First home game

This is a recap of my first home game that I played in a few weeks ago.

We played NL and the blinds went up very fast. The structure was 5000 starting chips with unlimited rebuys. Blinds go up every 15 min. starting at 25/50, 50/100, 100/200, 200/400, 300/600, 400/800, 500/1000, 600/1200, 700/1400, 800/1600, 1000/2000, 2000/4000. Not ideal, but it wasn't my game so I needed to adjust. I think I limped into one hand early, then didn't play a hand until after the first break with blinds at 300/600.

I was still stacked at T3300 or so and found pocket Q's in the big blind. The big stack at the table raised for the 10th straight hand, called my all in with 75o and doubled me up. Right after this, we consolidated down to the final table with 8 people. My first big blind at the final table, I pick up AA and get pushed into by someone with 100 chips less than me. He has presto and it is not gold this time.

By this time the blinds are 600/1200 and I am getting pretty aggressive because everyone wants to limp into the money, (1st:$250, 2nd: $120, 3rd: $60), we get down to 5 players left, I have T25000 and another big stack has T30000, that is about 1/2 of the chips in play. For the biggest hand of the night, I limp in the SB for 1200 after the big stack limps. The BB is another Big stack with T20000 or so. I have ATs and the flop comes A, 10, 5. It checks around on the flop. The turn is a 9 and right as I'm tossing my chips in, the BB starts to bet not seeing that I was already betting. He folds after my bet and the other big stack pushes. I call and he has 10,9 and I double up to a huge stack. Unfortunate I didn't just check, who knows whether the BB would have bet big or not.

A couple of hands later with two more busts and I am stacked at 65000 v. 20000 v. 5000. The blinds are 1000/2000 and I am liberally raising at this point with anything. I raise with 33 on the button to 7000. The SB (bigger stack calls) and the flop comes A35. He pushes and I call. He has pocket 7's and this would effectively end the match with the third player only having about 3000 in chips left after posting. You would think we were playing online poker when that 7 hit on the river. Live poker is so rigged. The short stack busted the next hand and we went heads up almost even. We battled back and forth for about 5 minutes before the blinds went to 2000/4000. We were both being very aggressive and ended up racing a couple minutes later. I had picked up AJ and raised, he min-reraised and I pushed. He called with pocket 8's and I didn't catch anything.

Crippled, I was able to double twice before being put out of my misery with J10 vs. A10. I was happy with the result, but things could have ended a lot different.

Tips for painting

Tip #74 - When taking a break from painting, be sure to place all painting materials, buckets and open containers at least six feet above ground level. This will ensure that the 3-yr old and 2-yr old in the house do not attempt to paint their faces, ala, Mel Gibson in Braveheart. Should this occur, significant delays will occur. Such delays include scrubbing your kids with a Brillo pad for an hour trying to get paint off of their ears, hair, nose and arms.

That is all.

Back

Well, I did end up leaving active duty in November once my terminal leave ended. I didn't leave my job though because I was offered some more money to stay and do my job as a civilian. I obliged and am signed on as a contractor for a year. I'm hoping it turns into a permanent position (GS-11), but its still up in the air. My wife and I moved into our new house in February and it is amazing. It was definitely worth the wait to have it built. My wife is due in June with the new baby, the name has been chosen and we are going with Reagan as the first name. Up until a week ago I hadn't played any poker, hence the lack of updates. Work created some issues when they started blocking a lot of the blogs that I read every day. I was able to keep up by reading via bloglines, but beyond that I stopped commenting because it became a hassle, more than a fun way to interact with friends. Some of those restrictions have been eased, but other sites like Pauly and Alcanthang are still off limits. What really got me back into this was the creation of the BBT by Al, Hoy and Mookie. I started out well with three straight points finishes including two final tables (although I played horribly at the end of both), but these last two events ended very bad with very low finishes after going short early in each.

I didn't get to play on Sunday or Monday because of family events happening, but I'm hoping to play in the Mookie tonight. Saturday should be fun as we get to host our house-warming party, other than that I'll be back with more later.

You're all on notice...

I'll be back to posting soon, it doesn't feel like 6 months has passed, but I feel like getting back into the blogging groove. Updates are pending, I'm under the weather today and home from work, so I'll probably get something up tomorrow.