Things were good for a while.. then.. not so much. I took a some time off and attempted to mentally prepare myself to completely rethink my attitude to the game. I looked back at the past few months and thought about what made the game suck and what made the game fun. The obvious top choices for the two are losing and winning, right? If that’s what you think, I would tend to bet that you are a results based player. That is a part of myself I hope I have now left behind.

I’m not focusing on results. I am now focused on making correct decisions.

Suckouts. When a hand significantly behind in the odds gets a lucky card to win. Suckouts WILL happen. If someone hits a 4 outer or less to beat me, well, that would mean than my hand is supposed to lose at most 9% of the time. That means that I did make the correct choice, but that was the time my hand was going to lose. In the same exact scenario, my hand would hold up more often then not. Playing in a field of more than 200? Most likely you will suckout to win on the road to claiming the tournament title. Your opponents will try and hide information from you, or trap you into thinking they have nothing when they have the nuts at that time. Suckouts are a part of poker.

No more boo-hoo I didn’t cash. Most people who play will not cash, that’s just a cold hard fact. Most of the time I will not cash.

It’s all about making correct decisions.

I took my account balance down really low, just enough to start off playing a $1.25 SnG, in fact the bankroll was $1.49 after my leave of absence. I want to start off with just about nothing and see what I can build it up to. Once my account reaches below $1.25, it’s game over. At the same time, I need a goal to hit. I’m not Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, I’m not going to set a 10k goal, that’s unrealistic. But I want to turn the $1.25 into $125.00, so that is my current goal. So far, playing patiently and trying to make correct decisions along the way, have started to strengthen my game and I have built up the bank roll up to $9.79. Not even enough to buy a nice lunch, or a spider roll from my favorite sushi bar. But a nice start.

-=-=-=-=-

Congrats to F-Train for taking down 33rd place in the Razz event at the WSOP!

Much thanks to Dr. Pauly for covering the WSOP and keeping me in the loop.

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Generate Full Tilt Summaries, or GFTS, has been updated to version v0.2.18. Please let me know if you have any issues by posting a comment here.

Changes:
• fix: Will now export Tournament Summaries again. Tested against version 4.14.34.1 of the Full Tilt Client.

Download the new version at mattahfahtu.com/gfts/

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Other captions that I just made up now:
I can has a suckout?!?
I is act’n weak wif mah boat

Moar at here.

I just added this one to the site..

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On my way to Seabrook, I sent out a text to bdidde of Biggestron, since I knew that he was in New England and not too far from where I was going. I knew it was a long shot, since it’s really hard to drop everything you are doing to go to a local card room in a little amount of time. You see, I wasn’t planning on going to a poker room during my stay in New England, it just worked out that way. So I fired of a SMS before I left, plugged in the address in the GPS and took off.

About 40 minutes later, I got a reply from bdidde, saying that while the poker room was close, he was unable to make it. But he was very kind to offer the wife and I dinner at his house the next night with his family. Awesome. Of course, I had to check with the wife first, so a few SMS’s later, plans were made.

The next day, the wife and I made out way to Portsmouth, nh and had brunch at Friendly Toast. Friendly Toast has a very interesting decoration style, strange paintings, lamps made out of old KFC buckets, MGD cases and old school memorabilia. Best of all, the food was awesome. They make their own bread daily so they have a different assortment of breads to have with your meal. We took a loaf of Cayenne Pepper and Cheese home with us. The kick of the Cayenne comes after you swallow and has a slow build. It’s great! I had a very tasty omelet which was stuffed with different kinds of meats and veggies and the wife had a huge waffle and a side of eggs. IF you are ever in the area, check out Friendly Toast.

Friendly Toast
121 Congress St
Portsmouth, nh 03801

After the good eats we wondered around Portsmouth and visited a few of the shops, enjoying the weather and the views. A few years back, while we were on the East Coast, I had my right ear pierced after having my left ear pierced many, many years earlier. I thought it would be cool to have each ear pierced on either coast of the USA. So last time we were in Salem, MA I got my right ear pierced. Two and a half months later, it was still red and angry, when it should have been healed and ready to rock. So I took out the earring and let the beast heal. Flash forward a few years, we are in Portsmouth nh and we walk past a tattoo/piercing shop. 20 minutes later, I have both ears pierced again and so far so good.

After we spent most of the day in Portsmouth, we headed out to bdidde’s place. When we arrived it had started to sprinkle. After we all said ‘Hello’ to each other, b’s son started to give us a tour of the house. After the tour was over, we talked for a while and then the Wii was turned on. The game of choice? Wii Sports. There’s nothing like getting your ass handed to you by a kid. I got smoked at Tennis, Baseball, Boxing (we tied, one match a piece) and golf. I also learned about the practice modes and Super Bowling. The final level of Super Bowling is 91 pins. Yeah… 91 pins. You start off with the normal 10 pins and a row is added to the back of the pins each time. Awesome stuff.

After the Wii was turned off in favor of smooth jazz, the BBQ was started and a wonderful dinner of chicken, rice, vegetable skewers and homemade beers. bdidde is a great brewmaster. After dinner, we chatted for a little bit longer and unfortunately there was still a hour or so drive back to Portsmouth. Thank you so much bdidde and family for a great time!

As I’m sitting at home now, with 100+ degree weather outside, I’m day dreaming about the East Coast and more Lobster Rolls.. (see the moblog for my Lobster Roll-a-Day quest). I know that I will be back on the East Coast again.

tags: east coast, friends, lobster rolls, travel

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While on vacation in New England, I was fortunate enough to be able to hit up a local casino in Seabrook. They had a $100 tourny at 7pm and I made the hour trek to enter. The drive was amazing. There is nothing like it where I live. A massive gathering of trees, stone and water. Simply beautiful. I arrived at the racetrack/poker room with 15 minutes to spare. So I signed up for the local players card, which is needed to play, and handed over the entry fee. Then, I waited.

I was assigned table 1, seat 6. Perfect seat for me, right in front of the flop. Four hands into the tournament this old dude, who is a regular, sits down and calls the bet to see the flop. The only other player in the hand makes a 2/3 pot bet and the old guy says, “Does that B stand for bitch or Boston?” Stone face from the other player. The old dude speaks again, “Look at that face. I bet I’m beat.” then he folds. Now the other player breaks his silence. “Dont you ever call me a fuck’n bitch again.” The two exchange words for a few seconds then old man stands up and says, “I’m 65 years old and I’ll kicker your ass. You want to take this outside?!?” The guy in the Boston hat gets up and proceeds to walk out the front of the pokerroom. The floor was called over and the old dude was ejected from the tourney. Apparently, this has happened before.

As for the tournament, the first three levels, I played a total of four hands, at a 50% win rate. Right before the first break, a short stack pushed twice in a row and when I looked down I saw ATs and called. He flipped over AKo and I said “Nice hand.” The flop was all low cards and the turn brought a lovely T for a suckout/knockout.

Now I have T6500, a build up of T1500. The next level I’d pretty quiet as I steal the blinds once. Near the end of the next level, level 5, I look down at QQ and limp in UTG, knowing that someone would raise it up. The chip leader makes it 1200 and I re-raise to 2900. He re-raises me to where I am left with T100. I call. The flop is Q74 and I check, he bets 100 and I call. He shows AK and I table my QQ. I’m way ahead and when I win this pot I will have over 12k in chips and have a very healthy stack. The turn is a T and the river brings a J for the other player to get runner-runner straight. I shake his hand and make my way to the cash tables. 6 hands played in two hours. I will now drive longer to get to the poker room and back to the hotel than I played in that tourney. Sick.

Cash tables was more of the same junk kicking. Table full of donkies and I can’t win a hand. Everytime I play a hand the river kills me. I keep telling myself, “that’s poker”, but the past couple of weeks have been too much. I keep getting everything in ahead and lose. I’m really starting to doubt myself now. I’m not sure if the WSOP is a good thing now. Why waste $1500 on the suckout that I know will send me to the rails?!?

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I’ll be in New England for a while, so only the moblog will be updated. GFTS will get an update this weekend, even though Full Tilt has made it almost obsolete (only took Full Tilt 14 months heh). I guess the voices of the users finally got FT to add tournament summaries to the client. It was a good run.

I’m going to see if it is possible to setup a winner takes all freeroll to the users who donated to GFTS as a thank you.

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Got robbed in a KO tourney, (I mean really.. you call 5x BB with 25o? Really?), placed third in a $10 SnG… and this:

One is not a trend. One is a Start.

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Break-smake.. Played a $10+$1 Double Stacked 90 players SnG… And after watching crap hit most flops, I played a crap hand.. that fit the mold.. it hit the flop.. and…

Full Tilt Poker Game #6188648409: $10 + $1 KO Sit & Go (47104236), Table 3 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold’em - 19:25:59 ET - 2008/04/26
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to StatikKling [6♠ 3♥]
StatikKling raises to 100
maayotte calls 100
upandcoming3 raises to 600
StatikKling calls 500
*** FLOP *** [6♦ T♥ 3♦]
upandcoming3 bets 2,150, and is all in
StatikKling calls 1,895, and is all in
upandcoming3 shows [J♣ J♥] AWESOME.. I’m ahead and he doesn’t have a diamond! 5 outs..
StatikKling shows [6♠ 3♥]
Uncalled bet of 255 returned to upandcoming3
*** TURN *** [6♦ T♥ 3♦] [7♠] Ok.. gained three outs.. but I’m still ahead..
*** RIVER *** [6♦ T♥ 3♦ 7♠] [7♥] O.o
upandcoming3 shows two pair, Jacks and Sevens
StatikKling shows two pair, Sevens and Sixes
upandcoming3 wins the pot (5,140) with two pair, Jacks and Sevens
StatikKling stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5,140 | Rake 0
Board: [6♦ T♥ 3♦ 7♠ 7♥]
Seat 3: StatikKling showed [6♠ 3♥] and lost with two pair, Sevens and Sixes
Seat 6: upandcoming3 (small blind) showed [J♣ J♥] and won (5,140) with two pair, Jacks and Sevens

One more.. and I’m going to study razz. Jebus.. I can’t get a break. I play tight and get blinded out. I play loose and get sucked out on. I play semi-tight/aggressive and still lose when I’m ahead. This is just retarded. Yes.. there will be some people who say, 63o?!? Why on earth did you play that? Like I said, crap had been hitting.. and its an easy hand to get away from if the flop was horrible. When I had good cards they didn’t hold up. So I switched my game up. As the donkfairy would have it, I hit the flop pretty hard. On the turn the other player had 8 outs.. basically 17%.. and he hit it.

Maybe one day I’ll have something happy to write about. Ever since I finished 19th out of 1224 on the Bronze Iron Man freeroll, I have had the worst run of luck. Here’s to never hitting/attempting Iron Man again and the shit luck that comes with it.

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Generate Full Tilt Summaries, or GFTS, has been updated to version v0.2.17. Please let me know if you have any issues by posting a comment here.

Changes:
• fix: Will now export Private Tournaments again. Tested against version 4.13.34.6 of the Full Tilt Client.

Download the new version at mattahfahtu.com/gfts/

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I’m taking two months off - no online poker. If the right moves always, ALWAYS get sucked out on, I just won’t play. Oh you only have two outs.. 100% chance that if I’m in the pot you will hit BOTH of them. Even if there’s only one card left. No matter what hte odds are, I’m beat. 99% favorite? Sent to the rail. Coin Flip? Sent to the rail. Behind from the get go? To the rail. I can’t win.

Solution? Can’t lose if you don’t play.

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