Win small, win small, win small, lose big, rinse, repeat

I have had pretty few losing sessions this year, but usually I lost a lot when I have them. I have had many winning sessions this year (almost all of them), but usually I win just a little. I played just a few sessions on April, winning all of them, but of course, I gave all of it back with my first losing session on May, losing big playing 30-60 razz this Friday night, Saturday morning.

I know better, I know it's pretty unprofessional of me playing this way; I should play the same amount of time despite my sessions results, and maybe just play a little longer if the table conditions are about right; but despite all my years playing poker I can't. It's a bad poker habit, despite all my mathematical background, I'm still pretty session results oriented; I have made pretty little progress on this issue, maybe now when I'm stuck, I play pretty long sessions, instead of the marathonic sessions I used to play years ago and big losses today don't bother me as much as they used to and that's probably why I'm able to stop now.

Still, one of the things I would like to solve, it's to play more when I'm winning, hell, I would like to be able to play more in general. My playing time is a big, big problem. I'm just winning enough money to get by, and while I have never had any pretensions about being rich and have lots of money, not winning more money now, it's going to be an issue on the long run. It's an issue now, since I don't have the bankroll to play on the WSOP for example, and I would like to be able to do it; but it's going to be a bigger issue in the future, since I'm not saving, and I'm not that young anymore.

El universo adentro

No escribi en Marzo y Abril y vuelvo ahora empezando Mayo, no han sido buenos tiempos, los problemas de depresion y ataques de ansiedad are back with a vengeance. Dificil hablar de un tema en el cual casi nadie te entiende, quizas ni uno mismo se entiende, muchas veces tu propio cerebro conspira contra ti, vives una existencia dividida e incomprensible, lo importante es que de una o de otra forma sigues adelante; regresas al mundo, al universo afuera, interactuas, vives, aunque nunca dejes de salir del todo de ese mundo tuyo que nadie conoce, el universo adentro ........

Academy Awards 2009

This Sunday I watched the Academy Awards religiously. I really don't remember not watching it all my adult life, I love it.
Still, this time I was a little pissed because of the no nomination for Best Picture for The Dark Knight, the no nomination for The Wrestler song by Bruce Springsteen and for the little love showed for Milk and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which I consider pretty damn good films, and before some nits tell me, "little love"? TCCOBB was nominated for 13 Oscars, what are you talking about; well, I'm talking about it was pretty strange to me to read everywhere, they didn't stand a chance versus Slumdog Millionare, which while I think it's a pretty good movie, I liked TDN, Milk and TCCOBB more, and never understood the endless love for SM.

The show for me was fine, different format, not awful, not fantastic like I have read somewhere, just fine. The best moments for me were:

- Sean Penn win and speech
- Dustin Lance Black speech
- Kate Winslet speech (despite I love Meryl Streep, and it's really sad she has only 2 Oscars so far)
- Philippe Petit at stage when Man on Wire won best documentary, the guy is so awesome.

And about betting, I did pretty well, as always, I have won money on the Oscars all the times I have bet on them, I bet some on Penelope Cruz and Viola Davis, because the line for Viola was pretty good and Penelope just to assure a profit. I bet a little on Meryl Streep and lost. And I bet a lot on Sean Penn, I couldn't believe my eyes with the line for Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke, I just wish I would have bet more. I took Sean at +200, 2 to 1, are you kidding me?, it was a gift. Mickey was outstanding in The Wrestler and he's a really cool dude, but Sean Penn's Harvey Milk was just mesmerizing, amazing, not enough adjectives to describe his acting, if you have seen Dead Man Walking, Mystic River and then Milk, you know what I'm talking about. At the very least the real line should have been around even between Sean and Mickey, even I think Penn was the favorite.

All in all, a pretty good night, I have always enjoyed the show no matter what, and i think I'll always do.

A river value-bet, a check-raise bluff and a good call

I think this limit holdem hand from the 50-100 game is pretty interesting, especially the play in the river.

PokerStars Game #24784067754: Hold'em Limit ($50/$100) - 2009/02/10 7:14:58 ET
Table 'Maia IV' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: sirio11 ($2892 in chips)
Seat 2: petknet ($3916.50 in chips)
Seat 3: eso_memory ($4750 in chips)
Seat 4: cherry1020 ($1382.50 in chips)
Seat 5: Zzeigler ($6336.50 in chips)
Seat 6: THE D0NAT0R ($13071 in chips)
eso_memory: posts small blind $25
cherry1020: posts big blind $50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to sirio11 [4h 4s]
Zzeigler: folds
THE D0NAT0R: folds
sirio11: raises $50 to $100
petknet: folds
eso_memory: folds
cherry1020: calls $50
*** FLOP *** [3c 8s 7s]
cherry1020: checks
sirio11: checks
*** TURN *** [3c 8s 7s] [Tc]
cherry1020: bets $100
sirio11: calls $100
*** RIVER *** [3c 8s 7s Tc] [8d]
cherry1020: checks
sirio11: bets $100
cherry1020: raises $100 to $200
sirio11: calls $100
*** SHOW DOWN ***
cherry1020: shows [4d Ks] (a pair of Eights)
sirio11: shows [4h 4s] (two pair, Eights and Fours)
sirio11 collected $822 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $825 | Rake $3
Board [3c 8s 7s Tc 8d]
Seat 1: sirio11 showed [4h 4s] and won ($822) with two pair, Eights and Fours
Seat 4: cherry1020 (big blind) showed [4d Ks] and lost with a pair of Eights

Let them 3 barrel, a hand from 10-20 NLH

Playing against no fear 3 barreling players, no problem, let them do it

PokerStars Game #24680985801: Hold'em No Limit ($10/$20) - 2009/02/07 5:36:29 ET
Table 'Turandot IV' 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: wayne120 ($1552.40 in chips)
Seat 2: Zelijostocko ($2291.75 in chips)
Seat 3: sirio11 ($2000 in chips)
Seat 4: ALLIN9865 ($2000 in chips)
Seat 5: jsizzle20 ($2337 in chips)
wayne120: posts small blind $10
Zelijostocko: posts big blind $20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to sirio11 [Kc Qs]
sirio11: raises $40 to $60
ALLIN9865: folds
jsizzle20: calls $60
wayne120: folds
Zelijostocko: folds
*** FLOP *** [3c 8d Kh]
sirio11: checks
jsizzle20: bets $100
sirio11: calls $100
*** TURN *** [3c 8d Kh] [As]
sirio11: checks
jsizzle20: bets $215
sirio11: calls $215
*** RIVER *** [3c 8d Kh As] [7s]
sirio11: checks
jsizzle20: bets $525
sirio11: calls $525
*** SHOW DOWN ***
jsizzle20: shows [Js Ts] (high card Ace)
sirio11: shows [Kc Qs] (a pair of Kings)
sirio11 collected $1828 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1830 | Rake $2
Board [3c 8d Kh As 7s]
Seat 1: wayne120 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: Zelijostocko (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: sirio11 showed [Kc Qs] and won ($1828) with a pair of Kings
Seat 4: ALLIN9865 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: jsizzle20 (button) showed [Js Ts] and lost with high card Ace

I insta called the river by the way.

Time, the inexorably flowing of time

Today is my birthday, another one, and this one will also pass as all the others, as any other day does, the important thing it's I'm still here, I'm living life and I still have dreams. It does not matter how much time you have left, it's what you do with the one you have that counts. Sometimes I think I'm old, sometimes I think I'm young, but I don't know, there is something about life that make you be really appreciative, even if you're not a very religious person. I started this year more conscious of my health, I want to live a good life, spend quality time on Earth, with my loved ones, with so many people I'm yet to meet, I'm ready, life goes on and so do I. Still too many great things to do, life is good, time is a good friend ........

Some 50-100 Limit

I played yesterday 2 tourneys, a $100+9 and the warm up $200+15, I made the money in the warm up and actually I was playing pretty good, but happened to have KK at the same time some other guy had AA, I was left with very little an finished the tourney 237 out of 4180, bummer, good showing anyway, good for $836, bleh.
I couldn't sleep, so I decided to play some 30-60 and 50-100 limit holdem, I played close to 1000 hands, I was pretty stuck in the 30-60, and at some point I was losing near $3k, but I came back, lose a little on the 30-60 but won on the 50-100, for a net gain of around $500.
I felt comfortable playing 50-100, hopefully I'll play more in the future.

One hand from the 50-100, we were playing 4 handed at that moment:


PokerStars Game #24056739924: Hold'em Limit ($50/$100) - 2009/01/19 9:00:12 ET
Table 'Tros' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 2: DrArpadElo ($5397 in chips)
Seat 3: pokkermon ($5272 in chips)
Seat 4: sirio11 ($2174 in chips)
Seat 6: stormi22 ($2000 in chips)
sirio11: posts small blind $25
stormi22: posts big blind $50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to sirio11 [7c Qc]
DrArpadElo: folds
pokkermon: folds
sirio11: raises $50 to $100
pokkermon said, "gg"
DrArpadElo is sitting out
stormi22: calls $50
*** FLOP *** [6c 7s 3d]
sirio11: bets $50
stormi22: raises $50 to $100
sirio11: calls $50
*** TURN *** [6c 7s 3d] [3s]
DrArpadElo leaves the table
sirio11: checks
stormi22: bets $100
sirio11: raises $100 to $200
stormi22: calls $100
*** RIVER *** [6c 7s 3d 3s] [Jd]
sirio11: bets $100
stormi22: calls $100
*** SHOW DOWN ***
sirio11: shows [7c Qc] (two pair, Sevens and Threes)
stormi22: mucks hand
sirio11 collected $998 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1000 | Rake $2
Board [6c 7s 3d 3s Jd]
Seat 2: DrArpadElo folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: pokkermon (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: sirio11 (small blind) showed [7c Qc] and won ($998) with two pair, Sevens and Threes
Seat 6: stormi22 (big blind) mucked [2d 7d]

Please vote for online poker !!!!!

The new Obama site is open to vote on ideas and for sure they'll take a look at the ones with the most votes

Move up the Online poker one with your vote !!!!!

Vote here, it takes seconds

Does poker make you a worse person?

I made a post (Changing Paths: Experiences about leaving poker) on an internet forum about this, and wow, I received pretty good responses. Some of the are really interesting and I think I'm gonna post them here because they are good, deep and offer a pretty interesting perspective for us poker players; and I'll offer some of my thoughts in the topic.

This response from "Ice" caught my eye and opens a pretty good discussion: Do we get worse as persons playing poker?

Here is the post, I quote:

"Ive been playing for about 2.5 years and im thinking about quitting or at east taking a long break. its probably for different reasons then other posters here, TBH i just feel like poker has turned me into a worse person then i used to be. i remember when i started playing poker i was a pretty honest and genuinely nice guy(for a poker player lol) and i don't remember intentionally trying to make some other person feel bad for no reason. but recently i've just noticed that ive turned into kind of a dick at the poker table. i despise almost everybody i play against. i show people bluffs only to **** with them and make my opponents feel bad. ive noticed myself become more greedy and selfish over the last 6 months or so. u can just see what poker does too people when u play live, all the douchebags that u see at the casinos at 3AM. i mean it just cant be good for somebody to be around these types of people.

It also just makes no ****ing sense to spend your 20´s in front of a computer grinding 12 dollars an hour when i could get a job and make more then that for half the time and probably feel better about myself while doing it.

i think poker has just turned me into a really miserable person and i would be doing myself and everyone around me a favour if i quit or take a long break or something."

I certainly can feel related to a lot of things Ice mention here, I started my career as a poker player in a B&M casino, and I remember the long hours, the terrible smoke (thanks God now is banned almost anywhere from good), and the scumbags/degenerates anywhere. Despite finding online good friends and pretty nice people, most probably in general the online poker scene is no much different, super greedy people, cheaters, lairs, sociopaths, people with no morals aside from using everybody to make some bucks, I sometimes lol at the "moral codes" some poker players think they have, probably they saw the Godfather or something and pretend they have some untouchable honor and "deep" respect for the game and their peers; most of the time this is just BS, of course it's not general, hell I'm a poker player and a pretty decent human being :), and of course there are plenty more, but I agree with Ice that for those who have the scumbag gene, poker accelerates their path to scumbagland, and some who otherwise would be pretty social and nice people, poker deteriorates them. There should be a minuscule minority who poker helped them to be better human beings. And I'm not naive, I know there are plenty of professions who make people worse (in general), just pointing out mine (sadly) is one of them.
Even for us who try to avoid all these shit and are constantly fighting against it, it takes its toll, definitely. I think if you want to go pro or if you are already one, you need to take a hard look at this and answer yourself if you like such environment, if you are not bother by it or if you can be one of the uncorruptibles.

New Year, Same Job? and you're never too old to live.

2009 is here, and one of the biggest decisions I need to make, it's if I want to continue without a "real job". I'm going to enter my 13th year playing poker, with some breaks from playing here and there, specially when I finished my masters degree at the beginning of the 2000's. There have been really good times, "the golden age of online poker", but as today, at least for us here living in the States the games are tougher every day. I left teaching at UTEP like 3 years ago, but I wonder if it's time to come back to teach at the college level, to look for a new path of make a living, be a movie critic or something, even to go back to school and pursue a PhD. Even if I do something different, I would still be playing some poker part time, hell, I have been playing poker part time (no time? hah) for a long time now; one of the funny things it's that I used to play plenty more when I had my full time lecturer job at UTEP, for some reason, having more free time, made me play less. Then I was very good in my job as a professor and I was very good playing poker, but I have to admit I was usually pretty tired since I used to do also some other projects like the Math Olympiad (still do), the Abel project (dead now), the UACJ (still going). The free time on my last 3 years have allowed me to spend a lot of time with my family, travel a lot, and that's priceless. My kids now are almost 6 and 4 and we have also another decision to make with them, homeschooling them or not?, and obviously since we need time to do that the 2 decisions are connected, Diana has also her own plans about what would she like to do and whatever we decide, our life is most probably going to change. Should we move from El Paso? If so, where? Should we come back to school? Diana for her masters, and me for a PhD or maybe even a masters in a very different area, Am I too old for that? Nah, the last question is easy, you're never too old to live. YOU'RE NEVER TOO OLD TO LIVE, don't ever forget that.

End of the year

I hope to play one more time before the year ends, because I would like to end it on a winning note, my last 2 sessions have been disastrous playing 30-60 limit and then 3-6 NL. I played yesterday like 10 or 11 hours non-stop no limit and quit because I just couldn't stand my last bad beat (posted below, BB Warning alert!!!), but I played pretty bad during the night, bluffing way too much on the wrong spots. I really need to study more, the competition is just too hard and you need to keep up with them if you want to survive.

Not really a "real" bad beat, but when you're losing you really want to win hands like this one.

PokerStars Game #23368436023: Hold'em No Limit ($3/$6) - 2008/12/29 12:33:32 ET
Table 'Ute III' 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: needfood ($600 in chips)
Seat 2: jóember ($627.45 in chips)
Seat 3: sirio11 ($889.05 in chips)
Seat 4: WCG|Rider ($1345 in chips)
Seat 5: binda ($699 in chips)
russ0618 will be allowed to play after the button
needfood: posts small blind $3
jóember: posts big blind $6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to sirio11 [3s 3c]
sirio11: raises $12 to $18
WCG|Rider: raises $60 to $78
binda: folds
needfood: folds
jóember: calls $72
sirio11: calls $60
*** FLOP *** [Ks 3d Tc]
jóember: checks
sirio11: checks
WCG|Rider: bets $114
jóember: folds
sirio11: raises $150 to $264
WCG|Rider: calls $150
*** TURN *** [Ks 3d Tc] [7d]
sirio11: checks
WCG|Rider: bets $1003 and is all-in
sirio11: calls $547.05 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($455.95) returned to WCG|Rider
*** RIVER *** [Ks 3d Tc 7d] [Jd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
sirio11: shows [3s 3c] (three of a kind, Threes)
WCG|Rider: shows [Ad Kd] (a flush, Ace high)
WCG|Rider collected $1857.10 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1859.10 | Rake $2
Board [Ks 3d Tc 7d Jd]
Seat 1: needfood (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: jóember (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 3: sirio11 showed [3s 3c] and lost with three of a kind, Threes
Seat 4: WCG|Rider showed [Ad Kd] and won ($1857.10) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 5: binda (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

A wild 30-60 limit holdem hand

After playing some 10-20 6 Max NL yesterday (this morning?, how do you call to the 3-5AM hours anyway), I decided to play some 30-60 limit, I like to play limit because of the action, and I like specially to play short handed, more action !!, but here we were playing 9-handed, that's why I consider it a little wild for my tastes, but maybe not, I'm not even sure if I should have bet the turn with all the action, but for sure the river bet was fine. Here is the hand:

***** Hand History for Game 22935123359 *****
$30.00/$60.00 Limit Texas Hold'em - Monday, December 15, 06:24:07 ET 2008
Table Iva (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: sirio11 ( $1313.00 USD )
Seat 2: antibiotik12 ( $3077.00 USD )
Seat 3: hg1689 ( $2570.00 USD )
Seat 4: blazerLee21 ( $3223.00 USD )
Seat 6: jejun ( $675.00 USD )
Seat 7: julianherold ( $3805.00 USD )
Seat 8: krazieass ( $1878.00 USD )
Seat 9: blackground1 ( $468.50 USD )
Seat 10: 67 BAILAYHUM ( $1200.00 USD )
antibiotik12 posts small blind [$15.00 USD].
hg1689 posts big blind [$30.00 USD].
67 BAILAYHUM posts big blind [$30.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to sirio11 [ Ks Jd ]
blazerLee21 calls [$30.00 USD]
jejun folds
julianherold folds
krazieass raises [$60.00 USD]
blackground1 folds
67 BAILAYHUM folds
sirio11 calls [$60.00 USD]
antibiotik12 raises [$75.00 USD]
hg1689 calls [$60.00 USD]
blazerLee21 calls [$60.00 USD]
krazieass raises [$60.00 USD]
sirio11 calls [$60.00 USD]
antibiotik12 calls [$30.00 USD]
hg1689 calls [$30.00 USD]
blazerLee21 calls [$30.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qc, 6c, Kh ]
antibiotik12 checks
hg1689 checks
blazerLee21 bets [$30.00 USD]
krazieass raises [$60.00 USD]
sirio11 raises [$90.00 USD]
antibiotik12 raises [$120.00 USD]
hg1689 folds
blazerLee21 calls [$90.00 USD]
krazieass calls [$60.00 USD]
sirio11 calls [$30.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5s ]
antibiotik12 checks
blazerLee21 checks
krazieass checks
sirio11 checks
** Dealing River ** [ 8s ]
antibiotik12 checks
blazerLee21 checks
krazieass checks
sirio11 bets [$60.00 USD]
antibiotik12 calls [$60.00 USD]
blazerLee21 folds
krazieass folds
sirio11 shows [Ks, Jd ]
sirio11 wins $1227.00 USD from main pot
antibiotik12 doesn't show [Qd, As ]

Do you bet the turn? What are their possible hands?

Best time of the year .... for movies

I'm a huge movie fan, I have always liked movies as far as I can remember. And for people like me December is the best month for movies, usually the best films of the year are released on these dates. Since I'm no movie critic, and live in a very underrated city like El Paso, where nobody cares to show advanced screenings, I have to wait just like everybody else to watch any movie, I'm really waiting anxiously to watch "The curious case of Benjamin Button" and "Slumdog Millionare", I think both will be nominated for oscar best picture, and even now, I still think The Dark Knight which impressed me a lot last summer, will be nominated too. I'll post my nominated predictions for the Oscars, I'm planning to deposit some money online to make some movie awards bets, since I have an excellent record in this area and of course I can use the money, lets see if I can break my betting quarentine, last time I bet (not poker of course), was last Oscar season, so most probably I'll do it again. But even if I don't, for sure I'll post my predictions to make the few people who still read this blog some money if they so want to.

"I have your AA cracked"; I insist sir, take all my stack

Sometimes you just don't lose enough with AA, even when people give you a way out, no, you must lose it all, you know you're beaten, but what the hell, you have aces !!.
Meh, I'm tired of these mistakes, when you can't let go AA. This is a hand from 5-10 NL 6 max which illustrates the point:

***** Hand History for Game 22553133501 *****
$1000.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, December 02, 07:12:23 ET 2008
Table Fagnes (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: xCptMorganx ( $1705.00 USD )
Seat 2: alimali63 ( $1246.00 USD )
Seat 3: sirio11 ( $1070.00 USD )
Seat 4: Sekt1 ( $2154.25 USD )
Seat 5: Vision82 ( $1034.00 USD )
Seat 6: HT-Max ( $1452.00 USD )
HT-Max posts small blind [$5.00 USD].
xCptMorganx posts big blind [$10.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to sirio11 [ Ac Ad ]
alimali63 folds
sirio11 raises [$30.00 USD]
Sekt1 folds
Vision82 folds
HT-Max folds
xCptMorganx calls [$20.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2s, 7d, Th ]
xCptMorganx bets [$30.00 USD]
sirio11 raises [$120.00 USD]
xCptMorganx calls [$90.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9s ]
xCptMorganx checks
sirio11 bets [$270.00 USD]
xCptMorganx raises [$1555.00 USD]
sirio11 calls [$650.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 8h ]
xCptMorganx shows [7h, 7c ]
xCptMorganx wins $2142.00 USD from main pot
sirio11 doesn't show [Ac, Ad ]
xCptMorganx wins $635.00 USD from main pot


I don't like his line much, still I should have checked the turn, and since I didn't then it was an easy fold to save my last $650, but man, being dumb is pretty expensive.

National Mathematical Olympiad

This weekend I just got back from the Mexican Mathematical Olympiad held at San Carlos, Sonora. I was there as the leader of the State of Chihuahua team and we had a terrific showing. Our best participation in more than a decade. That had been one of my goals this year and I think I succeeded, for now I'll just write about some of our most important results:

- All our students got medal, 3 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze

Guillermo López Buenfil ORO
Manuel Dosal Bustillos ORO
Josue Isai Vazquez Garcia ORO
Karina Patricia De la Torre Saenz PLATA
Diego German Orozco Garcia PLATA
Alberto Astiazaran Tobin BRONCE

So, Guillermo ("Memo"), Manuel and Isai are preselected as part of the National team to participate in the 2009 International Math olympiad (IMO) to be held in Germany next July.

- Two of them got selected for the Centroamerican Mathematical Olympiad to be held at Republica Dominicana next June 2009; Manuel and Karina

- Out of 32 states, we got 2nd place !!!

1- MORELOS 147
2- CHIHUAHUA 145 (Arrgghhh! just 2 marks)
3- YUCATAN 115
4- NUEVO LEON 112
5- SONORA 106

- The best student in the country is from our team

Memo got the highest score of all the 200 contestants with 40 marks (out of 42), it was an incredible performance since the 2nd highest got 34

- We won the "Copa Superacion"

1- CHIHUAHUA 46.70
2- BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR 25.05 pts
3- CAMPECHE 23.65 pts

I am pretty happy with the results, the co-leaders of our team were my friends Enrique Treviño and Hector Garcia, who did a wonderful job and we just make a great team.

For sure the Olympiad took a lot of my poker playing time this year, I spent way many hours in the Olympiad rather than playing poker, and that alone cost me a lot of money, but even when there's no money to be won in the Olympiad, it's something I'm very proud of.

Society is weird, I play poker and win money doing something with almost no meaningful contribution to society, while doing the Olympiad I contribute to society and get no money, I guess it balances out.

Some tourneys and some cash

This Sunday I played 3 tourneys, the $215 and $530 at Stars and the FTOSP $322, all NL, I made the money in the $215, and if I don't lose a 3 way all in with QQ vs AK and AQ, I'd made the $ also on the FTOSP. But the thing is, I'm not enjoying much to play tourneys, probably that's a good thing, since definitely I need to play more cash.
I recovered today some of what I lost yesterday, I was really ashamed of my play yesterday and I think I played pretty solid today, but there's still a long way to know if I can beat this level.

This week I'll be coaching my math Olympiad students for the national contest which is almost here, hopefully I find time to play some cash NL.

Argh

I just played terrible today and lost around 4 buy ins playing 5-10, really, all my big hands were played pretty bad, the only good thing I did was to quit. Days like this may me wonder if I'm ready for these levels. I played 6 max cash like if I was playing a tourney, just horrible. Oh well, time to sleep a little.

5-10 NL 6 Max Session

Playing 5-10 all night, more than 1200 hands, pretty good session.

These are the hands I won and lost the most this session:

PokerStars Game #21642703777: Hold'em No Limit ($5/$10) - 2008/10/31 10:27:53 ET
Table 'Terradas' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: PiS.ToTo ($1500 in chips)
Seat 2: Gomtv ($4591 in chips)
Seat 3: sirio11 ($4343 in chips)
Seat 4: sloppinu28 ($1018 in chips)
Seat 5: adtina22 ($1047 in chips)
Gomtv: posts small blind $5
sirio11: posts big blind $10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to sirio11 [Qd Qs]
sloppinu28: raises $20 to $30
adtina22: folds
PiS.ToTo: raises $80 to $110
Gomtv: folds
sirio11: raises $300 to $410
sloppinu28: folds
PiS.ToTo: raises $1090 to $1500 and is all-in
sirio11: calls $1090
*** FLOP *** [9d Ts 2c]
*** TURN *** [9d Ts 2c] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [9d Ts 2c 6c] [Ks]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
sirio11: shows [Qd Qs] (a pair of Queens)
PiS.ToTo: shows [Ad As] (a pair of Aces)
PiS.ToTo collected $3033 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $3035 | Rake $2
Board [9d Ts 2c 6c Ks]
Seat 1: PiS.ToTo (button) showed [Ad As] and won ($3033) with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: Gomtv (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: sirio11 (big blind) showed [Qd Qs] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 4: sloppinu28 folded before Flop
Seat 5: adtina22 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

I think I played bad QQ here and it was a costly mistake.

And now the "good" hand:

PokerStars Game #21643513146: Hold'em No Limit ($5/$10) - 2008/10/31 11:14:03 ET
Table 'Terradas' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: foxfox1 ($1045 in chips)
Seat 2: Gomtv ($4487 in chips)
Seat 3: sirio11 ($3180 in chips)
Seat 4: sloppinu28 ($971 in chips)
Seat 5: adtina22 ($1165 in chips)
Seat 6: Deldar182 ($2293 in chips)
Gomtv: posts small blind $5
sirio11: posts big blind $10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to sirio11 [8s 8c]
sloppinu28: raises $20 to $30
adtina22: folds
Deldar182: raises $70 to $100
foxfox1: folds
Gomtv: folds
sirio11: calls $90
sloppinu28: calls $70
*** FLOP *** [9d 8h 4d]
sirio11: bets $120
sloppinu28: folds
Deldar182: raises $230 to $350
sirio11: raises $2730 to $3080 and is all-in
Deldar182: calls $1843 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($887) returned to sirio11
*** TURN *** [9d 8h 4d] [Jh]
*** RIVER *** [9d 8h 4d Jh] [3h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
sirio11: shows [8s 8c] (three of a kind, Eights)
Deldar182: mucks hand
sirio11 collected $4688 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $4691 | Rake $3
Board [9d 8h 4d Jh 3h]
Seat 1: foxfox1 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Gomtv (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: sirio11 (big blind) showed [8s 8c] and won ($4688) with three of a kind, Eights
Seat 4: sloppinu28 folded on the Flop
Seat 5: adtina22 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Deldar182 mucked [Ah As]

Probably against another player, I play the hand differently, but against him at that moment in time, I think this was exactly the way to play it to make him commit all his stack.

I played 3 tables for about 5 hours straight. I stopped because Stars server went down.

I'm doing good playing cash games, tournaments are not fun these days, so for now I'll keep playing cash.

The election is almost here, don't forget to vote, GO OBAMA !!!!!

Long session

I'm playing more these days, and I just finished an all-nighter (and all morning). I just wanted to play, I played 10-20 NL 6-Max, 15-30 Limit, 30-60 Limit, 5-10 Razz, even 5-10 Stud Hi/low. I lost on Razz (How the hell can you lose playing that stupid game), won on stud H/L, lost playing limit and won playing 10-20 NL; it was a very nice session. I think I played well despite the long hours and this time I played a lot just because I wanted and not because I was stuck.

The hand I won the most money is the following (not necessarily the one I played the best, I think my best hands were on limit despite losing a lot there, I played nice a lot of 2nd monsters). Well, this is the hand:

PokerStars Game #21272979665: Hold'em No Limit ($10/$20) - 2008/10/17 15:55:35 ET
Table 'Dares' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: DeanoSupremo ($1964 in chips)
Seat 2: ADZ124 ($2000 in chips)
Seat 3: tiltphanatic ($4101 in chips)
Seat 4: sirio11 ($2631 in chips)
Seat 5: ibback ($4898 in chips)
Seat 6: Killer_ooooo ($4609 in chips)
DeanoSupremo: posts small blind $10
ADZ124: posts big blind $20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to sirio11 [Kc Ks]
tiltphanatic: raises $40 to $60
sirio11: raises $160 to $220
ibback: calls $220
Killer_ooooo: folds
DeanoSupremo: folds
ADZ124: folds
tiltphanatic: folds
*** FLOP *** [9s 4d 4c]
sirio11: bets $460
ibback: calls $460
*** TURN *** [9s 4d 4c] [Kh]
sirio11: checks
ibback: bets $560
sirio11: raises $580 to $1140
ibback: calls $580
*** RIVER *** [9s 4d 4c Kh] [Td]
sirio11: bets $811 and is all-in
ibback: calls $811
*** SHOW DOWN ***
sirio11: shows [Kc Ks] (a full house, Kings full of Fours)
ibback: mucks hand
sirio11 collected $5349 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $5352 | Rake $3
Board [9s 4d 4c Kh Td]
Seat 1: DeanoSupremo (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: ADZ124 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: tiltphanatic folded before Flop
Seat 4: sirio11 showed [Kc Ks] and won ($5349) with a full house, Kings full of Fours
Seat 5: ibback mucked [Kd Ac]
Seat 6: Killer_ooooo (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

The thing I liked the most on this hand (besides winning it of course) were my timing tells, but those are not in the hand history obviously. I think I'm getting better at my timing bets, calls, checks. They are pretty important tells when you play online and you need to be difficult to read based on how many seconds you take to make a decision.

Well, now to sleep a little, I'll play some volleyball at night and tomorrow I'll coach my Olympiad Students, We already have the State Team (Chihuahua) and I feel pretty good about the team to bring some gold medals from the National Math Olympiad next November.

My first 25-50 NL session

Yes, I'm not kidding, I barely play cash or tourneys, when I play cash it's usually 3-6 or 5-10 6Max NL, I don't have a bankroll, I don't have the passion for poker I used to have, never study anymore and today I just decided to play a little 25-50 NL, ha, I'm such a strange gambler.

My session went pretty smooth, I lost about $1500 playing 5-10 earlier, so I just wanted to win some $2000, easy right?, just sit down with better players than you, more experienced than you and the money will come.

Well, for once I was pretty concentrated, these high stakes made me take things seriously and to be honest, I really enjoyed the session, at one point I was down some $3000 (total), but I ended winning $2100 in the 25-50 table, so, I won some $700 for the day and I was pretty happy my gambling didn't cost me a leg.

Probably my most interesting hand played today was the following:

PokerStars Game #20342650078: Hold'em No Limit ($25/$50) - 2008/09/12 7:34:53 ET
Table 'Sculptor' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: IamTazz ($850 in chips)
Seat 3: Krazyball ($1025 in chips)
Seat 4: fumbo420 ($7907 in chips)
Seat 5: sirio11 ($5424.50 in chips)
Seat 7: FUTURE102 ($3322 in chips)
Seat 8: firas71 ($5337 in chips)
Seat 9: good2cu ($5075 in chips)
fumbo420: posts small blind $25
sirio11: posts big blind $50
Bullitos: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to sirio11 [Qd Td]
FUTURE102: folds
firas71: raises $100 to $150
good2cu: calls $150
IamTazz: folds
Krazyball: folds
fumbo420: calls $125
sirio11: calls $100

*** FLOP *** [8s Jd Ts]
fumbo420: checks
sirio11: checks
firas71: bets $450
good2cu: calls $450
fumbo420: folds
sirio11: calls $450

*** TURN *** [8s Jd Ts] [Th]
sirio11: bets $650
firas71: calls $650
good2cu: raises $1750 to $2400 !!!!
sirio11: folds
firas71: raises $2337 to $4737 and is all-in
good2cu: calls $2075 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($262) returned to firas71
*** RIVER *** [8s Jd Ts Th] [8d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
firas71: shows [Kd Js] (two pair, Jacks and Tens)
good2cu: shows [Tc Ad] (a full house, Tens full of Eights)
good2cu collected $11547 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $11550 | Rake $3
Board [8s Jd Ts Th 8d]
Seat 1: IamTazz folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Krazyball (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: fumbo420 (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: sirio11 (big blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 7: FUTURE102 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: firas71 showed [Kd Js] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Tens
Seat 9: good2cu showed [Tc Ad] and won ($11547) with a full house, Tens full of Eights

KJ guy was a litle on tilt, and that made me think about calling the turn raise with my set and straight draw, but I thought good2cu had 88 or ATs and decided to fold. I think it was a good fold, but of course I'm not used to this stakes, but I felt good about it, even before I knew the showdown. Good thing firas decided to call, so I could see their cards. Don't know if I'll play more 25-50 in the near future, for sure I don't have the bankroll, but I liked my overall play in the table and to be honest it's pretty nice to be able to concentrate and enjoy a poker game played at a pretty good level.

This weekend I'll be training my students for the next Mathematical National Olympiad, if I have the time, I'll probably play the WCOOP tourneys on Sunday.

Batman: The Dark Knight

Just went to the midnight opening of The Dark Knight directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento).
My first impression is I need to see this movie again, and what a fantastic movie it is. Write it down, Heath Ledger will be nominated to the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and not only because of his tragic death last January, it will be because his is a magnificent piece of acting, I can't believe you can't forget now about Jack's Nicholson performance of the Joker, who was pretty, pretty good, but Heath gives the character a new dimension, a new deep, man, I almost felt identified with the Joker and his vision and philosophy about how society as a whole is not worth it. Definitely a great movie and you have to see it. I liked Aaron Eckhart and Christian Bale as well and in general all the cast did a pretty good job, and the directing and editing was amazing. Thumbs up for sure.

WSOP: To go or not to go

The WSOP is running at full speed as I write this, I have been there every one of the last 4 years, but probably I'll miss this one. We already have booked some nights in Vegas (at the Rio) for the end of June and the beginning of July, but most probably I won't play any event. It's a mix of money management discipline and self-impose punishment because I haven't played the hours I should have played this year. It's a punishment because I love the WSOP, oh man do I love it, I seem to play my best there, since online I'm always distracted, and over there I'm all over the table absorbed by the action and enjoying every moment, most of my online poker players peers feel bored by the slow action, and of course it's slower compared to online, but for me it's not boring at all, and the mix of characters playing is really interesting, I have some very good memories from my playing there. I have 8 cashes there and one final table out of about 28 tourneys, but my number of cashes won't increase this year, besides I'm pretty busy with the Mathematical Olympiad, I think we have a real shot to be the #1 state ranked in the National (México) Mathematical Olympiad this year and if we do it I'll be very proud. It would be nice to go to the WSOP and win some bracelet and then go to the Olympiad and win first place, have a happy life with the family and in the meantime solve the oil crisis, but I have to accept no WSOP plans will be better this year, that's the plan as today, but I know the day I will be in Vegas at the Rio in the middle of the WSOP environment with all those strange characters who call themselves poker players from all over the world, it would be pretty hard not to play, the WSOP, such a beautiful temptation ..... and Vegas is sin city after all ......

Our students go to Math International Contests !!

Yesterday I received the news that 2 of our students will be representing Mexico in 2 international Math contests. Manuel Guillermo Lopez Buenfil will be representing Mexico at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO 2008) next July in Spain, and Manuel Enrique Dosal Bustillos will be representing Mexico at the Centroamerican Mathematical Olympiad in Honduras. Both students are high school students from Ciudad Juarez (for the Geography-impaired, Juarez is the Mexican city that borders with El Paso, Texas), the Mathematical Olympiad is one of my hobbies, I have been involved in the Olympiad since 1991, some friends and I have a pretty good team to prepare students for the National contests in Mexico, we do it for free, because of our love to solve challenging Math problems and working with gifted students, and we are very happy with such fantastic results and very proud of "our boys". This is for them, hoping they can bring home those Gold Medals.

Baseball bets Sat-Apr-12

WAS +158
CHN +158
NYY +148
ARI -128

Year to date: 24-26 +3.00 Units

I use to post these on the Sports Betting forum on 2+2, I'll try to post them here too.

Coaching

Ultimamente me ha estado tentando la idea de ser coach de poker, para jugadores hispanos. No se si haya mercado para ello, pero pues ando explorando posibilidades, siento que seria una buena forma de combinar el ensenar con el poker, ademas de quizas ganar algo de dinero. Ahorita no se de la existencia de sitios de training en Espanol, quizas los haya por ahi.

Ademas siento que me ayudaria en mi juego, siempre el concentrarse en ensenar ayuda a hacer mejor las cosas. Anyway, just rambling about it.

OBAMA

I just can't wait for the Bush administration to go, man, these have been like the dark ages of politics in the US. I can't believe the guy has been in office for 7 years, hopefully the nightmare is over and the Democratic nominee will be the next president. As today there are still 2 candidates standing for the democrats, Sen Hillary Clinton (NY) and Sen Barack Obama (IL); I like Hillary, but for me this election is all about the Iraq war and that's the main difference between the 2, I have always been an antiwar advocate, since the beginning, now it's easy and even kind of cool to be anti-war, but back in 2002-2003 we were in the minority; Hillary voted for the war and as you can see in this youtube video, Barack was against it from the beginning, I have read the whole Barack's speech of October 26, 2002; and there are 2 amazing things, one, how right he was and how he predicted the whole mess the war is right now, and two, it's like hearing me talk back then at the antiwar rallies we were.
The man is amazing, after I listened to his keynote speech at the Democratic convention on 2004, I told my wife, this guy is going to be president.
Yesterday we went to a meeting with the Obama campaign here at El Paso, my wife and I are volunteering and we have some phone calls to do and many other things between today and Tuesday. I'd say Texas is looking good for Obama and I have no doubt he will beat Sen John McCain (AZ) on the general election next November to became the next US president.
Now let's hope the change is for real, USA and the world can use some of it.

Dinero que deje ir en los Oscares: Gambling discipline

Me fue muy bien con mis picks, 18 de 24 is pretty good; lo unico malo es no haber podido apostar por no tener dinero en los sportsbooks, mala planeacion de mi parte, en vez de apostar un monton en la NFL debi haber dejado para invertir en los oscares. Como quiera pude ganar algo, a traves de mi amigo Oscar aposte a No Country For Old Men a mejor pelicula y a Tilda Swinton a mejor actriz de reparto, ganando ambas apuestas (unos $600). Ademas gane $1200 en la polla que se hizo en el MTT forum en 2+2, asi que no me puedo quejar, fue un buen dia, aunque de haber tenido el capital, hubiera ganado bastante al igual que el año pasado. Las apuestas que hice en la NFL a pesar de perderlas, siento que eran buenas apuestas, pero para nada se compara con la ventaja que tengo en las apuestas de Oscares. Un error tactico de mi parte que espero no cometer el año entrante, rompi una regla basica de un gambler profesional, dado un capital limitado, no usarlo de la manera mas eficiente posible.

Note to self: If you have a finite amount of money to invest with 2 possibles option investments A and B where A is marginal and B is HUGE, just wait bonehead !!

My Oscar Predictions

Since after my January NFL debacle, I'm not betting for a while; I won't bet this time for the Oscars, but still I love to predict the winners and here they are my predictions:


BEST PICTURE
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

DIRECTOR
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jason Reitman, Juno
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie, Away from Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Laura Linney, The Savages
Ellen Page, Juno

Since Julie is the overwhelming favorite (I don't know exactly why), there's value in betting for Cotillard. I still think Julie has the odds to win, but I liked Marion more and as a gambling man, I'm taking Marion.

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
Ruby Dee, American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

Here I think there's value betting both, Swinton and Ryan; Cate is the favorite but I don't see her winning this.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Diablo Cody, Juno
Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Brad Bird, Ratatouille
Tamara Jenkins, The Savages

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Christopher Hampton, Atonement
Sarah Polley, Away from Her
Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Beaufort, Israel
The Counterfeiters, Austria
Katyn, Poland
Mongol, Kazakhstan
12, Russia

ANIMATED FEATURE
Persepolis
Ratatouille
Surf's Up

ORIGINAL SCORE
Dario Marianelli, Atonement
Alberto Iglesias, The Kite Runner
James Newton Howard, Michael Clayton
Michael Giacchino, Ratatouille
Marco Beltrami, 3:10 to Yuma

ORIGINAL SONG
"Falling Slowly", Once
"Happy Working Song", Enchanted
"Raise It Up", August Rush
"So Close", Enchanted
"That's How You Know", Enchanted

ART DIRECTION
Arthur Max, Beth A. Rubino, American Gangster
Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer, Atonement
Dennis Gassner, Anna Pinnock, The Golden Compass
Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo, Sweeney Todd
Jack Fisk, Jim Erickson, There Will Be Blood

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Seamus McGarvey, Atonement
Janusz Kaminski, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Roger Deakins, No Country for Old Men
Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood

COSTUME DESIGN
Albert Wolsky, Across the Universe
Jacqueline Durran, Atonement
Alexandra Byrne, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Marit Allen, La Vie en Rose
Colleen Atwood, Sweeney Todd

Here, I'm split between Atonement and Sweeney; if the Academy decides Atwood has already too many Oscars (2), Durran may end up winning

MAKEUP
Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald, La Vie en Rose
Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji, Norbit
Ve Neill and Martin Samuel, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Sicko
Taxi to the Dark Side
War/Dance

No end in Sight is the favorite, but I just love Michael Moore, and Sicko is a pretty good film

SOUND MIXING
Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis, The Bourne Ultimatum
Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland, No Country for Old Men
Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane, Ratatouille
Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe, 3:10 to Yuma
Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin, Transformers

SOUND EDITING
Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg, The Bourne Ultimatum
Skip Lievsay, No Country for Old Men
Randy Thom and Michael Silvers, Ratatouille
Matthew Wood, There Will Be Blood
Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins, Transformers

VISUAL EFFECTS
Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood, The Golden Compass
John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier, Transformers

FILM EDITING
Christopher Rouse, The Bourne Ultimatum
Juliette Welfling, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jay Cassidy, Into the Wild
Roderick Jaynes, No Country for Old Men
Dylan Tichenor, There Will Be Blood

Prery rare a film without best pic nomination wins here, so NCFOM may be a better bet, but I still think Bourne will take the Oscar

SHORT FILM – ANIMATED
"I Met the Walrus"
"Madame Tutli-Putli"
"Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)"
"My Love (Moya Lyubov)"
"Peter & the Wolf"

SHORT FILM - LIVE ACTION
"At Night"
"Il Supplente (The Substitute)"
"Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)"
"Tanghi Argentini"
"The Tonto Woman"

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
"Freeheld"
"La Corona (The Crown)"
"Salim Baba"
"Sari's Mother"

Card Player Article: Sirio11 plays back at the bubble abuser

On the last Card Player Magazine, there was an article by Craig Tapscott on the Inside Straight Authors section (well, at least looking at the online version, since I don't have the magazine with me), about a hand I played in a $1000 buy in online tournament. Craig made very good questions and I think the article is pretty good.

This is the link, there are some other pretty good articles in that section, like the one by Dani Stern (a must read), a 2+2 friend and a very successful online player.


Sirio11 Plays Back at the Bubble Abuser
By Craig Tapscott

Want to study real poker hands with the Internet's most successful players? In this series, Card Player offers hand analysis with online poker's leading talent.

Event: PokerStars $1,000 no-limit hold'em tournament
Players: 313
First Place: $70,425
Stacks: sirio11 - 19,494; Villain - 56,984
Blinds: 400-800

Craig Tapscott: Set up the scenario at the beginning of this hand.

David "sirio11" Cossio: This hand happened on the bubble with about 47 players left. It shows a way to play versus bubble abusers, like the Villain was in this hand. He was the chip leader at the table and was raising a lot, since 46th paid nada and 45th, $1,700. His activity had increased proportionally as we approached the bubble. I knew his range was huge, and decided to take advantage of his play, based on his image, my image, and the stage we were at.

CT: What was your image at the table previous to this hand?

DC: I was involved in very few pots, so my image was solid/tight.

Villain raises to 1,800 from the cutoff. Everyone folds to sirio11 in the big blind, holding the Jd 9d.

CT: Do you reraise him now or wait to see what the flop brings?

DC: One option here is to reraise, but with my stack, I don't like the play. I think that by just calling, I can win the pot most of the time when we both don't flop anything, and I can win even more when I flop something. Even when my play backfires, I'm not afraid to lose half of my stack, since I play pretty well when short-stacked.

Flop: Kh 8s 8c (4,000 pot)

DC: Perfect flop, as he most probably doesn't have anything.

Sirio11 checks.

CT: Why perfect? You missed. What are you going to try to represent?

DC: There are no draws at all, and no coordinated board. So for him, if I play back, I "must have" the 8 or the king at the very least (I can't be drawing), and he may fold a hand like 9-9.

Villain bets 3,400.

CT: I'm sure you were expecting the continuation-bet. What's the right bet size here to take it down and why?

DC: Yeah, I was expecting it. My bet size of 8,000 will look like I want to take the pot now. I would be check-raising almost any continuation-bet versus this player.

Sirio11 check-raises to 8,000.

DC: I had a good image, and that helped me with the check-raise. With my image, he'll think I can't be bluffing, since we're on the bubble. And he can't bluff me back, because it looks like I'm committed.

CT: Some people will call with medium pocket pairs here. When do you know that someone is a thinking player and "knows" from your bets that you're committed?

DC: Given the flop, my image, and my action, I think it is pretty hard to call me with a medium pocket pair, even if you're a bad player. This was a $1,000 tourney and we were at the final stages, so chances were that he was a good player.

Villain folds. Sirio11 wins the pot of 11,360.

DC: I showed my hand. I wanted to send him a message, and most importantly, a message to the table. I had some walks after that.

David Cossio lives in El Paso, Texas. He has a master's degree in mathematics. He has been playing poker since 1997, and has eight World Series of Poker cashes, including a third-place finish in 2005 for $79,450. He also has multiple tournament wins online and is a solid threat in any cash game.

Superbowl and the pursuit of perfection, New England and what could have been.

This Sunday was the Superbowl, the biggest event on TV each year. The New England Patriots (18-0, at the moment) and heavy favorites were to play the New York Giants, an otherwise semi mediocre team, who turned things around in the playoffs. New England was about to make sports history, it will be remembered for ever if they won, but fate and the Giants had different plans. NE lost 17-14, NY was the better team this Sunday, NE just could not decipher them and everybody at the end but the NY fans were like "What the hell just happened?". Mr. Perfection Tom Brady looked very human, Eli Manning was playing over his head all postseason and this Sunday was no different. There was an incredible play in the 4th quarter between Eli Manning and David Tyree, a miraculous scape from the New England Defense by Eli and after that a miraculous catch by David Tyree, the type of catch which defies physics and logic, It was THE PLAY of the game, after that play, even I really wanted the Pats to win, I kind of knew it was over. A Plaxico Burress reception for a TD with about 30 seconds left sealed the game and shocked the sports world. I had mixed feelings, I really wanted the perfect season by New England, but NY played with all heart those final minutes of the game and they deserved to win.
For me, it was the end of my sports betting career (at least for now) my SB bankroll is gone, thanks to the unlikely postseason by the giants (I bet against them every game) and the choking of the Indianapolis Colts versus San Diego, game that cost me a lot since I had so many teasers depending on it. I had pretty bad luck betting on Sports last month and it's time to concentrate just in poker. I still think there's money to be made betting on sports, but until I have a good bankroll for it, I'll stay away from sports betting. I kind of feel like the NE Patriots, a little depressed, dreams shattered, but there is always chance for redemption and the new season is coming. Perfection is pretty hard, hell, being pretty good is pretty hard; but we as humans aim for it. Evolution demands it, we can't help it.

Super Mario Galaxy !!!

Historic day today, I just finished Super Mario Galaxy !!!!, 121 Stars for Mario and 121 stars for Luigi, such an awesome game. To be honest I didn't do all the stars, my 4 year old did a lot of them. There were pretty difficult stars (challenges) to do, wonderful game by Nintendo, I spent countless hours playing, but I really enjoyed all of them, and my kids love it !!!!
Ha, I just have to post it, it's not exactly like winning the world series of poker, but if you play the game, you will be pretty proud if you finish it. Interesting how a video game can give us such sense of accomplishment.

New Year !!!! Living NOW

New year usually means new resolutions, and that is almost always good since it's one of the ways of stopping and looking at your life from a different angle. I'm optimistic about this year, I have some resolutions but these can be done or not, the important thing is to maintain the fire, to live and everything (at least most of the important things that really matter) will come.

Probably what I'm about to write it's a cliche, but I'm still want to share it anyway.

Without a doubt we'll all die, nobody will remember us years after we die; the universe has been here without us for billions of years and for sure it can exist without us for a few billion more.

Still, the most important moment is NOW


Why do we keep forgetting this and living plenty of unhappy/lifeless/mediocre moments?

The Cheating Society and the Cheating Archives

I have been involved in so many discussions on poker tournament cheating in the 2+2 forums (mainly on MTT). Some of the discussions have been really amusing, legendary, but most of them are just sad. I have always cared about the integrity of the game, but it's just too hard when so many of the top tournament players condone, endorse or just don't care about these cheating issues. I almost give up, I don't post anymore on the MTT forum on 2+2, mainly because I'm pretty disappointed with the reaction of the regulars toward this issue; same reason I just didn't post any more since long time ago on the Pocket Fives forums, back then, looked like 2+2 people used to care and condemn these practices, not anymore, so many cheating scandals. But why the young poker studs would be any different living on this pro-cheating society with all the sports, politics, corporation scandals, where it does not matter how you succeed, whatever it takes, looks like the path is not important anymore, no matter how many rules you broke, the important (and cool) thing is to get the money, fame, power. Sometimes playing poker I just feel like all those MLB players who work their ass to compete, but in reality will never have a chance with equally talented but steroid enhanced players. Hey, but we still make good money to have a decent living.

Just in case you have some hundreds of hours to kill, here are some of the legendary threads on this topic for your amusement:

On buying accounts and why you should care by sirio11

To the Multi-Accounters : some thoughts before this upcoming Sunday by ActionJeff

On Ghosting by Ansky

Cheating in Online Poker by uclabruinz

WCOOP ME champion is play2kill (Multi-Accounting) by Clayton

The Grandma dilemma: Debunking the myths by sirio11

Who is Next/Exclusive? by jaydoggie

Potential Multiaccounting in the 530$ WCOOP by FatalError

Online tournament integrity compromised - my email to Lee Jones by McMelchior

To all the multiaccounting cheaters by sirio11

Chris Vaughn BluffMag multiaccounting by Kongsgaard

On multible accts by thorladen

My Explanation by JJProdigy

EASY ON JJ PLEASE by Belowabove

Have you ever created a ghost online account? by sirio11

Noah's 2nd account taking on Raymer by jemenz

Lee Jones Reiterates his policy on cheating; BOYCOTT STARS by KaneKungFu123

ZeeJustin the next to get caught multi accounting Party MTTs by URMeowed

So like, JJProdigy just won $140k by Exitonly

PARTY RECTIFIES JJ/ABlackCar situation!! by kosmicd21

Chat revoked to Gank in PS by sirio11

"JJ-Land - All JJ Posts Here!" AKA "What really happened..." by JJProdigy

Teasing early this week

Today we have a NFL game, Denver-Houston, and the line moved today so HOU became a good teaser team, so I decided to act fast and have the following teams on teasers:
HOU +8.5
CIN -2.5
GB -2.5
SEA -1
Seattle is not a teasing team yet, but I think the line will move to -7.5, so I decided to take the better line now.

Hedging on those mediocre Ravens

Just when I was about to give up on my NFL bets (yeah right), I decided to tease again this Sunday MIN,TEN,IND,HOU,SEA and DEN. All my teasers covered and I won like 26 bets (26-0) and I recovered all the loses from previous weeks and win some. The Indy game was Sunday night, so about 11 of my teasers were depending on IND -2.5, that is, I could finish 15-11 or 26-0. I decided against my gambling nature and decided to hedge the game betting BAL +10, so if Indy didn't cover, at least I would win some with the Baltimore bet, but if Indy cover by 10+, I lost the amount I bet on Baltimore and win the 11 teasers, and I could still win both bets (teasers and BAL+10), if Indy win by 3-9 points; basically I wanted to reduce variance, since the jump from 15-11 to 26-0 was pretty steep. Well, Indy won by 24 points and it was really painful to watch those mediocre Ravens, instead of feeling like a responsible gambling guy by minimizing variance and assuring a good profit, I felt like I just wasted that money I bet on the Ravens, I waited until the last minute before kickoff to make the bet, I just wanted to let it ride my IND -2.5, but decided to assure a good profit, not a bad move at all, but I feel cheated by those Ravens, I mean, I don't care if they win or lose, but I do care if they DON'T PLAY. How the hell a Pro Sports team can play so differently from one week (versus the Patriots) to the next (versus the Colts). The answer is mediocrity, I already have them pegged as mediocre because they played so good versus the Patriots (why don't they play like that every week?), and the mediocrity level was just confirmed with their terrible performance versus the Indy Colts at Baltimore. No heart at all, no desire to win, no respect for the fans, nothing, man, these are pro athletes, maybe too much money may them forget what is to play your heart out EVERY WEEK, no matter who are you playing, no matter your position, always play to win.
Despite those Ravens, it was a wonderful weekend on Sports Betting coming back to the good side of variance.

Last 2 hands in the Super Tuesday $1K

Poker Stars, $1,000 + $50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 1,000/2,000 Blinds, 8 Players

UTG: 60,366

UTG+1: 53,888

MP1: 48,941

Hero (MP2): 71,002

CO: 65,683

BTN: 57,424

SB: 82,309

BB: 78,686

Pre-Flop: (4,600) K J dealt to Hero (MP2)

2 folds, MP1 raises to 6,000, Hero calls 6,000, 4 folds

Flop: (16,600) 2 7 6 (2 Players)

MP1 bets 18,000, Hero raises to 60,000, MP1 calls 24,741 and is All-In

Turn: (102,082) 3 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (102,082) 5 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 102,082 Pot

MP1 showed J J (a pair of Jacks) and WON 102,082 (+53,141 NET)

Hero showed K J (high card King) and LOST (-48,941 NET)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Poker Stars, $1,000 + $50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 1,000/2,000 Blinds, 8 Players

MP2: 83,965

CO: 54,488

BTN: 98,282

Hero (SB): 19,261

BB: 64,683

UTG: 51,024

UTG+1: 77,309

MP1: 69,287

Pre-Flop: (4,600) A T dealt to Hero (SB)

6 folds, Hero raises to 19,061 and is All-In, BB calls 17,061

Flop: (39,722) K 8 7 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: (39,722) Q (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (39,722) 2 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 39,722 Pot

Hero showed A T (high card Ace) and LOST (-19,261 NET)

BB showed 8 A (a pair of Eights) and WON 39,722 (+20,461 NET)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First hand, I had the stack and I like to play from behind with a hand like KdJd, flop came perfect (little cards with 2 diamonds), unfortunately for me he had JJ, but still was a 46% to win after the flop, no king or diamond to save me.

Last hand, folded to me with AT in the SB, which was perfect because now if I went all in, he could call with Ax or any broadway hand thinking I wanted to buy the pot, my wishes were granted and he called with A8, but I lost the 72%.

So close ...... AGAIN

Since I'm being killed with my NFL teasers and some other sports bets, I decided to come back to the tourney variance !!!, such a ridiculous life we gamblers live, winning and losing big amounts of money (and some sense of reality); so, since the dark side of variance came back in sports, I decided to play some tourneys, after the $300 I played on November 28th, I decided to play this past Sunday all the big ones, I couldn't, I just played a $55 satellite, lost with a full house and got all mad, and decided to watch my loved NFL games instead.
Yesterday the PATS (aka the best football team ever) made me lose some more teasers I had with them and I got all mad and decided to play today some tourneys. Today (Tuesday) I played a $100, and the 2 big ones on PokerStars, the $150+12 and the $1000 Super Tuesday, I lost fast in the $100 and did pretty well in the other two, this is if the definition of doing well it's getting to the final 2 tables on both. I got 16th out of 313 in the $1000, and 15th out of 912 in the $150, my total winnings for such feat, just $3,686 !!, so close to the big money, once again, once again, yadayada ... I think I played pretty well on both, got lucky on the $150 and got unlucky on the $1000 (1st prize was 70K).
If I'm not mad by tomorrow I'll post some hands, the usual final hand badbeat ones, and some others with actual poker content. Meh, who am I kidding? Most probably I won't post nada, but it's nice to think I will do it.

Killed by horrible calls

I played my first tourney in like 2.5 months, the $300+20 Wednesday with a prize pool of almost $200K. I was cruising but then I was killed by these 2 hands:

Poker Stars, $300 + $20 NL Hold'em Tournament, 100/200 Blinds, 9 Players

UTG+1: 2,345
UTG+2: 3,520
Hero (MP1): 7,355
MP2: 4,608
CO: 2,630
BTN: 8,260
SB: 4,065
BB: 11,277
UTG: 7,786

Pre-Flop: (300) K A dealt to Hero (MP1)

2 folds, UTG+2 raises to 600, Hero raises to 2,200, MP2 calls 2,200, 5 folds

Flop: (5,300) 4 4 6 (2 Players)

Hero bets 2,600, MP2 calls 2,408 and is All-In

Turn: (10,116) Q (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (10,116) Q (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 10,116 Pot

Hero showed K A (two pair, Queens and Fours) and LOST (-4,608 NET)

MP2 showed 8 8 (two pair, Queens and Eights) and WON 10,116 (+5,508 NET)

------------------------------------------------------
Mmmmmm, calling 50% of your stack preflop after a raise AND a reraise with 88?
-------------------------------------------------------

The second one:

Poker Stars, $300 + $20 NL Hold'em Tournament, 100/200 Blinds, 9 Players

BTN: 2,045
SB: 3,820
Hero (BB): 2,747
UTG: 10,116
UTG+1: 2,630
UTG+2: 7,560
MP1: 3,375
MP2: 11,867
CO: 7,686

Pre-Flop: (300) A 7 dealt to Hero (BB)

UTG calls 200, UTG+1 calls 200, 6 folds, Hero raises to 2,747 and is All-In, UTG folds, UTG+1 calls 2,430 and is All-In

Flop: (5,560) 5 Q 4 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: (5,560) T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (5,560) 6 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 5,560 Pot

Hero showed A 7 (high card Ace) and LOST (-2,630 NET)

UTG+1 showed A 8 (high card Ace) and WON 5,560 (+2,930 NET)

-------------------------------------------------
Calling in EP with a semi-shortstack with A8d, and then calling the 14x all in, just in case your hand is good ??
_________________________________________________

Well, a warm welcome to donkaments, to be honest, I don't remember the field for the $300 being this bad, but that's a good thing, right?

Sunday Teasers

Doing all 2,3,4 on PHI,NYG,DET and MIA

Teasing these teams

I'm doing completely all 2,3,4 with BUF,SEA,GB,SD,DEN y HOU. Also doing some PIT.

Too many bets, and the problem is I have too many road teams, but I couldn't help it. Go teasers !!!!

And I couldn't bring myself to bet the Patriots, but I'm really excited for the Patriots-Colts game.

Lots of teasers, no tourneys at all and some cash games

This week I think I'm going to bet too many teasers on the NFL games, probably more than 40 bets, I know there are too many, but I think they have an edge and well, sports betting is all about finding a little edge here and there.

I haven't played a tourney probably since the Main Event of the WCOOP, really I don't even remember the last one I played, but I'm playing some cash games, I wouldn't say in a regular basis, but I put some hours some days of the week, I play 2-4,3-6 and 5-10 No Limit 6-handed, I'm doing well, probably variance is on my side, but I feel pretty comfortable with my 6-handed game. I just need to put more hours, so I can be rich, but I'm pretty lazy, well I guess it's more about lack of focus than laziness, I can't just concentrate for long periods.

I'm also solving a lot of Math Olympiad problems these days, I love them and I have always liked a good Math challenge.

Probably I'll post the teams I'm teasing this week, hopefully I won't lose my sports betting bankroll this week.

I love Teasers !!! what a NFL weekend

This weekend I had an all time high of 27 NFL bets. I won 26, pushed 1 and 0 loses !!!! Just incredible, I used the following teams to do the teasers NYG,DAL,HOU,KC,NO,TB,SEA and all of them covered !!!, the only team I was going to use but did not like the line was WAS, the line was -8.5(-2.5 with the tease), so I didn't bet it; at the end it was a good (lucky?) decision, since Washington won 21-19 and didn't cover the -2.5. I do bet one WAS -8(-2) line just like one minute before kick off (my wake up time)and that was my only push.
I feel pretty proud because I almost didn't bet any game since I was pretty tired on Saturday night, Sunday morning, but even I was pretty sleepy, I went to my computer like at Sunday 5AM and did my homework and bet all the games I thought there was a mathematical edge. It worked and I felt proud of my professional gambling responsibility (whatever that means).
There were 2 incredible games where unlikely things happened at the end just to help me cover, the Tampa Bay and the Houston game. After the 3rd quarter, I thought I had already lost the HOU game and all my HOU teasers since the score was 32-7, but with an unbelievable 4th quarter, HOU scored 29 points just to help me cover :), they lost at the end 38-36 with a NFL all time record 8th field goal by Rob Bironas of Tennessee, but since I had HOU+7.5 I was pretty happy, such an unbelievable game. Since it's pretty unlikely I'll win these many bets without losing one in the future in a given day, I just feel the need to post all the bets:


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 6:16a 2 Team Teaser
(412) Dallas Cowboys -2½ Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.5 points)
(428) Seattle Seahawks -1½ Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.5 points)
Outcome: Win
Risk $240.00 to win $200.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 6:33a 2 Team Teaser
(416) New York Giants -2½ Sun@1:00p (Teased 6.5 points)
(428) Seattle Seahawks -1½ Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.5 points)
Outcome: Win
Risk $240.00 to win $200.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 7:01a 3 Team Teaser
(421) Kansas City Chiefs +9½ Sun@4:05p (Teased 6.5 points)
(412) Dallas Cowboys -2½ Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.5 points)
(428) Seattle Seahawks -1½ Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.5 points)
Outcome: Win
Risk $200.00 to win $320.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 6:53a 2 Team Teaser
(421) Kansas City Chiefs +9 Sun@4:05p (Teased 6.0 points)
(428) Seattle Seahawks -2 Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.0 points)
Outcome: Win
Risk $220.00 to win $200.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 7:06a 3 Team Teaser
(408) New Orleans Saints -2 Sun@1:00p (Teased 6.0 points)
(421) Kansas City Chiefs +9 Sun@4:05p (Teased 6.0 points)
(428) Seattle Seahawks -2 Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.0 points)
Outcome: Win
Risk $200.00 to win $360.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 7:07a 3 Team Teaser
(417) Tampa Bay Buccaneers +8½ Sun@1:00p (Teased 6.0 points)
(421) Kansas City Chiefs +9 Sun@4:05p (Teased 6.0 points)
(428) Seattle Seahawks -2 Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.0 points)
Outcome: Win
Risk $200.00 to win $360.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 7:12a 3 Team Teaser
(417) Tampa Bay Buccaneers +9 Sun@1:00p (Teased 6.5 points)
(412) Dallas Cowboys -2½ Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.5 points)
(428) Seattle Seahawks -1½ Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.5 points)
Outcome: Win
Risk $200.00 to win $320.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 7:11a 3 Team Teaser
(408) New Orleans Saints -1½ Sun@1:00p (Teased 6.5 points)
(412) Dallas Cowboys -2½ Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.5 points)
(428) Seattle Seahawks -1½ Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.5 points)
Outcome: Win
Risk $200.00 to win $320.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 7:17a 3 Team Teaser
(416) New York Giants -2½ Sun@1:00p (Teased 6.5 points)
(412) Dallas Cowboys -2½ Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.5 points)
(428) Seattle Seahawks -1½ Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.5 points)
Outcome: Win
Risk $200.00 to win $320.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 6:06a 2 Team Teaser
(408) New Orleans Saints -2 Sun@1:00p (Teased 6.0 points)
(428) Seattle Seahawks -2 Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.0 points)
Outcome: Win
Risk $220.00 to win $200.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 6:04a 2 Team Teaser
(417) Tampa Bay Buccaneers +8½ Sun@1:00p (Teased 6.0 points)
(428) Seattle Seahawks -2 Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.0 points)
Outcome: Win
Risk $220.00 to win $200.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 6:39a 2 Team Teaser
(417) Tampa Bay Buccaneers +9 Sun@1:00p (Teased 6.5 points)
(412) Dallas Cowboys -2½ Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.5 points)
Outcome: Win
Risk $240.00 to win $200.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 6:14a 2 Team Teaser
(416) New York Giants -2½ Sun@1:00p (Teased 6.5 points)
(412) Dallas Cowboys -2½ Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.5 points)
Outcome: Win
Risk $240.00 to win $200.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 7:19a 3 Team Teaser
(416) New York Giants -2½ Sun@1:00p (Teased 6.5 points)
(421) Kansas City Chiefs +9½ Sun@4:05p (Teased 6.5 points)
(412) Dallas Cowboys -2½ Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.5 points)
Outcome: Win
Risk $200.00 to win $320.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 6:56a 2 Team Teaser
(421) Kansas City Chiefs +9½ Sun@4:05p (Teased 6.5 points)
(412) Dallas Cowboys -2½ Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.5 points)
Outcome: Win
Risk $240.00 to win $200.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 7:21a 3 Team Teaser
(408) New Orleans Saints -1½ Sun@1:00p (Teased 6.5 points)
(416) New York Giants -2½ Sun@1:00p (Teased 6.5 points)
(412) Dallas Cowboys -2½ Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.5 points)
Outcome: Win
Risk $200.00 to win $320.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 6:57a 2 Team Teaser
(416) New York Giants -2½ Sun@1:00p (Teased 6.5 points)
(421) Kansas City Chiefs +9½ Sun@4:05p (Teased 6.5 points)
Outcome: Win
Risk $240.00 to win $200.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 7:02a 3 Team Teaser
(408) New Orleans Saints -2 Sun@1:00p (Teased 6.0 points)
(417) Tampa Bay Buccaneers +8½ Sun@1:00p (Teased 6.0 points)
(421) Kansas City Chiefs +9 Sun@4:05p (Teased 6.0 points)
Outcome: Win
Risk $200.00 to win $360.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date placed: Oct 21, 2007 1:01p 2 Team Teaser
(406) Washington Redskins -2 Sun@1:00p (Teased 6.0 points)
(428) Seattle Seahawks -2 Sun@4:15p (Teased 6.0 points)
Outcome: Push
Risk $220.00 to win $200.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/21/2007 06:45:35 2 Play 6.5 point Teaser:
Wagered $240.00 to win $200.00 Won Teaser Wager
F 15 10/21 SAN FRANCISCO AT NEW YORK G NEW YORK G -9.0 (+6.5) (W)
F 19 10/21 TENNESSEE AT HOUSTON HOUSTON +1.5 (+6.5) (W)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/21/2007 06:37:45 2 Play 6.0 point Teaser:
Wagered $220.00 to win $200.00 Won Teaser Wager
F 7 10/21 ATLANTA AT NEW ORLEANS NEW ORLEANS -8.0 (+6.0) (W)
F 17 10/21 TAMPA BAY AT DETROIT TAMPA BAY +2.5 (+6.0) (W)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/21/2007 06:34:59 2 Play 6.0 point Teaser:
Wagered $220.00 to win $200.00 Won Teaser Wager
F 19 10/21 TENNESSEE AT HOUSTON HOUSTON +1.5 (+6.0) (W)
F 27 10/21 ST LOUIS AT SEATTLE SEATTLE -8.5 (+6.0) (W)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/21/2007 06:31:40 2 Play 6.0 point Teaser:
Wagered $220.00 to win $200.00 Won Teaser Wager
F 17 10/21 TAMPA BAY AT DETROIT TAMPA BAY +2.5 (+6.0) (W)
F 21 10/21 KANSAS CITY AT OAKLAND KANSAS CITY +2.5 (+6.0) (W)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/21/2007 06:30:53 2 Play 6.0 point Teaser:
Wagered $220.00 to win $200.00 Won Teaser Wager
F 7 10/21 ATLANTA AT NEW ORLEANS NEW ORLEANS -8.0 (+6.0) (W)
F 21 10/21 KANSAS CITY AT OAKLAND KANSAS CITY +2.5 (+6.0) (W)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/21/2007 06:29:35 2 Play 6.0 point Teaser:
Wagered $220.00 to win $200.00 Won Teaser Wager
F 19 10/21 TENNESSEE AT HOUSTON HOUSTON +1.5 (+6.0) (W)
F 21 10/21 KANSAS CITY AT OAKLAND KANSAS CITY +2.5 (+6.0) (W)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/21/2007 06:11:27 2 Play 6.0 point Teaser:
Wagered $220.00 to win $200.00 Won Teaser Wager
F 7 10/21 ATLANTA AT NEW ORLEANS NEW ORLEANS -8.0 (+6.0) (W)
F 19 10/21 TENNESSEE AT HOUSTON HOUSTON +1.5 (+6.0) (W)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/21/2007 06:10:27 2 Play 6.0 point Teaser:
Wagered $220.00 to win $200.00 Won Teaser Wager
F 17 10/21 TAMPA BAY AT DETROIT TAMPA BAY +2.5 (+6.0) (W)
F 19 10/21 TENNESSEE AT HOUSTON HOUSTON +1.5 (+6.0) (W)

Monterrey !! Congreso SMM

Ahora ando en Monterrey en el Congreso de la Sociedad Matemática Mexicana, este próximo Jueves 18 daré una platica titulada: "Beating the odds: existe tal cosa como un jugador profesional de poker", sera de 12:30 PM a 2 PM tiempo de Monterrey en el auditorio del FIME en la UANL. Así que si de pura casualidad lees este blog y vives en Monterrey o cercas, ve a la platica.
Llegue a Monterrey desde el jueves pasado para asistir al curso de entrenadores de la Olimpiada Mexicana de Matemáticas, estuvo muy suave y resolvimos problemas muy buenos, esta semana es el congreso y hay miles de platicas de Matemáticas, algunas se ven muy interesantes, pero yo creo asistiré solo a aquellas que tienen que ver con la Olimpiada o que el expositor es compa, jeje. Ya casi tengo mi platica lista, pero este Miércoles le daré los toques finales, esperemos y todo salga bien.

Cash sessions and a good sports betting month

Cleveland won again and won the series against the Yankees, also since I have Cleveland and Boston, I already secured a good profit in the AL Pennant, just with Cleveland alone almost erase my loses on a 10-20 NL terrible session I had (-2 buy ins), one night I just couldn't sleep and decided to play 10-20 NL (??) for the first time, what a time to start, I couldn't sleep but I was tired for sure, and decided to gamble high stakes !!!! (and yes it was a dumb gamble) and of course I got killed since I'm not in that level yet, but thanks to Cleveland and winning all my sessions after that in lower limits from 2-4 to 5-10 NL, that night has been forgotten.
I'm leaving town today, heading to Monterrey, I'm going to the meeting of the Mexican Mathematical Society at the UANL, I'll give a talk there (program 35:10) about how to beat the odds and showing some examples using mathematics in poker and gambling in general. I have several good examples and I really expect the talk to be successful and I'm pretty sure plenty of people will attend, since gambling (and how to make some money of it) is not a topic well known in Mexico and I'm sure it will generate some interest, hopefully my ideas will be clear and everybody who attends will enjoy it.

Cleveland !!

I won good money betting Cleveland on games 1 and 2 versus the Yankees, didn't bet game 3 and the Yankees won, I was not going to bet game 4, since Yankees are in a must-win situation playing in New York, Wang is a much better pitcher than Paul Byrd, but the price was just too good to pass, Cleveland +222, I could not resist it and bet the tribe, go Indians !!

Some baseball bets

Last week was a very good one for me on Sports Betting, lets see how this one goes,

For today games I have the following:

CHI (Lilly) at ARI (Davis); I have CHI -122
NYY (Wang) at CLE (Sabathia); I have CLE +118 (3 units)
COL (Morales) at PHI (Kendrick); I have PHI -138

I also bought some Boston (35) and Cleveland (22) to win the AL Pennant

My Fantasy Baseball season

I'm really proud of this league (I'm Resurgam Hicetnunc), I just destroyed the competition, it's just amazing winning 7 out of 10 categories in a 12 owner Rotisserie Fantasy Baseball League. Damn, I owned these guys :)

This year I played 2 Fantasy baseball leagues with the following results, 1 out of 12 (4 paid) and 4 out of 13 (5 paid). So, with my 2006 fantasy league I'm now 3 for 3 on fantasy baseball cashes. This is the breakout of the money won this year:

1st place F2: +$1200
4th place F1: +$200
Fees F2: -$250
Fees F1: -$200
Sidebets F1: -$400
Sidebets F2: +$400

So I won $950 for my fantasy baseball addiction.

WCOOP Main Event

I'm too tired to post now, but let me tell you I played yesterday like 12 hours straight and got 111th place (out of 2998) in the $2,600 Main event of the WCOOP, I won $11,242.50 for my efforts. It is such a ridiculous tourney, 1st place was a whopping $1,378,330.50; damn !!!, more than a million dollars in an internet poker tournament, just amazing. As I'm typing this, the tournament is still running !!!!, as you can see in the picture above, running for almost 21 hours !!!! just wow, such an amazing tournament, I think I played pretty well and make some tough decisions, and some good creative plays that worked, and in general I'm happy with my result. I almost don't play it, but some internet friends convinced me to do it by buying whatever action I was willing to sell. I cashed 2 times in the WCOOP (out of 11,12?), but by far, the Main Event was my best tournament, the one I feel the most relaxed and happy with my decisions.

Here are the payouts:

Cashes have come back and I'm playing !!, plus a hand and a dry pot

I played 4 tournaments this Sunday and cashed in 2 of them (a $200 and a $100), even the $200 was a little disappointing, I finished 63 out of more than 2000, I'm happy, not for the cashes but because I'm playing more and more and that's good. There were many interesting hands yesterday, one I remember from the $100+9 was the following:

We were already in the money with 4 tables left:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t1000 (9 handed)

saw flop|saw showdown

BB (t27883)
UTG (t3198)
UTG+1 (t10865)
MP1 (t42597)
MP2 (t36125)
MP3 (t11358)
CO (t16250)
Button (t25556)
SB (t23607)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Ks, 5s.


UTG raises to t3098, 5 folds, Button calls t3098, Hero calls t2598, BB calls t2098.

Maybe the call was in the loose side, but I did it because of the all in guy, we have a good dry pot and usually this means people let you see more cards while you don't let them if you hit or think you can beat the all in guy, in this case I have to hit

Flop: (t11692) Kh, 8c, 7s (4 players)

Ok, I hit and I'm first to act with 2 guys in the pot besides the AI guy, I decided to bet to isolate, but I thought a small bet was enough to get rid of players with an ace or an small pair, and if I encounter any resistance (a raise) I just fold, since usually a raise in a dry pot situation means a hand

SB bets t3000, BB raises to t24685, Button folds, Hero folds.

BB went AI after my bet, he had been playing pretty tight up to that point, I was prepared to fold but still took a moment to think about the chance he had something like A8 and wanted to really isolate, based on his play before and the fact that he was doing that versus a bet and a guy still to act made me fold

Turn: (t39377) Tc (2 players)
River: (t39377) 8s (2 players)

Final Pot: t17692
Main Pot: t17692 (t17692), returned to BB.

Results in white below:

BB has 9c Th (two pair, tens and eights).
UTG has Js Ah (one pair, eights).
Outcome: BB wins t17692.

I was debating the BB play with a friend and I think the fold was the correct play here and I don't like much BB's play (even it worked for him, THIS time). What do you think?

AK and a short-medium stack

Another mistake I think I use to make a lot, it's when I have AK, let's say on MP with a 10-17x stack, the stack may be too big to go all in, but if I make the usual raise to 3x and got called by somebody on the button for example. I have a hard time playing the flop, the pot has about 8x and you have 7x-14x left. Lets say 3 rags come, my mistake is I go all in a little too much in this situation just to be called by any pair, so, there must be a better way to play the AK here, shove preflop?, check-fold flop, mini-scare bet flop?, and of course I'm assuming you know nothing about your opponent.
What to do?, please do tell me, I play very bad the AK missed flop, I should say in general, but specially when I don't have a big stack.