Nat Arem's Blog

I have two posts to make today… one about two nights ago and one about what happened yesterday. So this one about about two nights ago, then I’ll make one about yesterday.

After just kinda hanging around for a bit, I talked to Ozzy and went down to his room with my laptop to play some online poker. thorladen set up a private tourney at 2 AM for the off-topic forum at P5s, so Ozzy and I decided to play. It was a NLHE $10+$1 with a $50 bounty on thor and Ozzy and a $25 bounty on some player I hadn’t heard of.

Anyway, I went out the first hand when thor raised to 60 in EP and shoved with pocket 5s (how could I fold them in a P5s tourney?). I know I’m a dog in the actual hand, but I knew that, if called by thor, I would have the bounty overlay (5x the buyin!). Therefore, he could call with an overpair and it would still be +EV for me. So he called with TT and I failed to suck out. Here is the hand: P5s shove v thor.

I also got a screenshot of the lobby (click for a larger image):

After that, while Ozzy finished up in the tourney, I sat at a few .01/.02 PLO tables with the plan of donking it up. I was a complete luckbox, getting pretty big stacks (relative to the stakes on a bunch of tables)… hands like this one help a lot… Note my odds on the flop:

Results:
Omaha Hi: 666 enumerated boards containing Tc 9c 6c
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
As 4c Ah Jh 6 0.90 660 99.10 0 0.00 0.009
Qs Ac Jc Td 651 97.75 12 1.80 3 0.45 0.980
Ts Qc 8c Ad 6 0.90 657 98.65 3 0.45 0.011

Yep, I was less than 1% to win. Wheeeeee.

Anyway, that was fun. Next entry coming up soon.

supernova9 and Ozzy woke up early today for the 10 AM $200 tournament. I obviously slept until 3 PM.

After I got up and showered, I went down to the poker room and found supernova9, Roman (Empire2000), Genius28 and ZappyB playing a 5/10 NL no max game. They were sitting with stacks in the 4-10k range, but I’m not sure of the exact amounts. supernova9 decided to get up, then we saw ZBTHorton and gobboboy by the cage. Here’s a pic I took of the three of them while supernova9 was cashing out:

ZBTHorton, gobboboy and supernova9

We went over to the Box Office to buy into some of the upcoming tournaments, met up with Chrisman886, and headed to the Forest Grill steakhouse. After a good dinner, we went back to the room and Ozzy woke up to come down and hang out for a bit. He played more 50/100 NL on UB (he lost $20 for the session!) while talking with supernova9 about some hands. Here’s a pic I took of them on the couch:

supernova9 and Ozzy

Now we’re watching Lost and we’ll figure out what to do after it ends in about 10 minutes.

Meeeeeeeeeeeee

Ozzieeeeeeeeeee

**All pictures can be credited to the skillz of supernova9

I left my house at around 11 AM today, picked up Ozzy at the Syracuse airport around 3:45 PM, then arrived at Turning Stone around 4:30 PM. We met up with Ansky/supernova9 (my roommate this trip) and went up to the room. Ozzy is staying in our room the first night, then moving out to his own tomorrow, so we dropped our stuff off and went to the Chinese restaurant here — I think it’s called Peach Blossom.

After dinner, we went over to the poker room and signed up for some of the NL games. The $200 max 1/2 NL game had an open seat, so I jumped in, then Ozzy jumped in a few hands later. I was in the two seat, Ozzy was in the one seat. There were a bunch of really deep stacks… multiple people with $500+ when we sat down. Within 30 minutes, Ozzy was up to $650 from his $200 buyin.

But here are some of the hands I played…

1. In BB, limped multiple times pre-flop, unknown SB makes it $25 (!), I look down at JJ, decide to call and re-evaluate on the flop (I seriously considered folding for a little bit, then just decided to call — because I had JJ! Anyway, I felt like a fish for thinking like that), another MP player calls. Flop is A73, SB leads for $25, I fold, MP min raises to $50, SB makes it $30 more, so $80 total, MP folds. And yes, that really happened.

2. Folded to me on the button, I raise to $8 with AQo, a steaming BB calls (Ozzy had just stacked him). Flop is QT4, BB checks, I bet $15, he calls. Turn is a low card, like a 7. He checks, I bet $20 (I think, I’m not sure why I bet so small… I probably just didn’t keep good track of the size of the pot), he calls. River is a Q, he checks, I bet $40, he folds. I would normally play it a little more cautiously, like check behind on the turn, but he was steaming so his range was much wider to check call a flop bet.

3. Early-mid position player opens to $15, folds around, I have black AA on the button. I call because I hadn’t re-raised yet and I didn’t want to let the table know that I had AA. The flop is J9x with two to one of my suit, he leads for $40, basically the size of the pot. I ask for a count, he says $110 more very confidently, so I’m very sure I’m up against KK or QQ. I didn’t think he’d lead for that amount in that spot with much else. I decide the best play is to push because I didn’t want an overcard or a club coming to scare either one of us, so I verbally declare all-in and he calls pretty quickly with QQ. The 2+2 crew saw this hand… Ray (Exitonly4), Clayton, etc. He blanks off and I win a pretty big pot.

I left up about $160 after an hour or two.

Now, we’re sitting in our room… here are some token pics

supernova9 with his crappy old-ass laptop

Ozzy playing 50/100 NL on UB. He’s still playing as I write this…

supernova9 and Ozzy

We have to go to sleep relatively soon, the $200 tournament starts at 10 am.

Back in Philly after a mini-road trip with schaefer to NYC, Boston, Cooperstown and NYC again. I have less than a week until I leave for Turning Stone and I have bunch of stuff to do. With regards to blogging I want to…

1. Write up a full trip report w/ pictures starting with schaefer arriving at my house and ending with my train ride home from NYC.

2. We stayed at Matt Matros/jacksup’s Brooklyn apartment on our way up through NYC (and we went to two Mets games with him). On our way out, he was kind enough to give me a signed copy of his relatively new book The Making of a Poker Player (there isn’t an affiliate link on that URL, I don’t get anything out of you buying the book). I want to read it prior to Turning Stone and write up a review for the blog.

Also, I want to tell everyone to go buy the new Tool album 10,000 days (wiki for the album). Granted, Tool is one of my favorite groups, but this is a great album IMO. Regardless of how it compares to their previous efforts, it’s better than almost any other album I’ve bought in the last 10 years. Go get it.

So after the NYC stop, Brandon and I drove up to Boston to see a game at Fenway.

We took in this destruction: Orioles at Red Sox

Here are some pictures that I took from my seat (it was pretty good, I was behind home plate):

I also took a short video from my seat that panned from right field to left field: Fenway video

We got up bright and early Monday morning to make the 4+ hour drive from Boston, MA to Cooperstown, NY to see the Baseball Hall of Fame. We arrived around 2 PM today and spent a few hours in the museum – it closed at 5 PM – before leaving to get some dinner. We’re staying at a nearby hotel, then we’ll head back to the museum for a few hours tomorrow before driving down to NYC to see the 7:05 PM BOS-NYY game. It’s Randy Johnson against Josh Beckett and it’s Sox-Yankees in Yankee Stadium… I’m not sure if baseball gets much better than that for an early May game.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the Hall of Fame:

Brandon outside of the Hall.

Me in front of the plaques for the first class to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Brandon standing in the Hall of Fame Gallery, which features the plaques of all the HOFers.