whoisMissMoriarty

Out of town for a few days

2009-06-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

I ended up 28th in the PLO tournament for a $5300 cash. I'm headed out of town for some r&r as I've been feeling a bit under the weather - hence the lack of posts.
I am unsure whether I'll be playing the Main event - maybe try and qualify on July 5th.

Day Two of the Pot-Limit-Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or better

2009-06-26T10:31:00.000-07:00

I guess the title might put you off, but have no fear I don't intend to get too technical. I will be brief, as I have 3 hours til D-day. I am doing well. We started yesterday at noon with 762 players all buying in for $1500. We finished after midnight with 87 players remaining - the top 72 will finish in the money. I have 43,800 chips where average is 39,400, so I am well-placed. The winner will take the bracelet and $225,000. 72nd will get around $2,000. We play down to 9 players today, The Final Table, where the big money resides. The top twenty get around $10K or more.

I am feeling psyched, a little underslept, but ready to return to the breach, once more, dear friends. I would like to play in the Main Event - I believe it is my destiny. For this I need $10,000. It is time for breakfast - til soon dear friends, til soon.

Dialysis Dave - how not to play poker.

2009-06-24T17:51:00.000-07:00

This post is quite poker-oriented, so read it at your peril.....

I am still kicking myself about the hand I didn't play. Dialysis Dave raises the minimum which is $1200, and I have A-8 offsuit in the small blind having paid $300, with over $10,000 behind. Ace-eight is known as the deadman's hand as Wild Bill Hickock was shot holding aces and eights. There were so many reasons to play and yet I folded - first off Dialysis Dave was barely alive, by his own admission, and it would be only courteous to send him to an early bed. His game was transparent too - he was in the cut-off (second last before the dealer button) and his raise was clearly a marginal hand. The big blind recognised the value and called an extra $600 chips. The flop arrives A-A-7 and DD chucks in $3000 like a man who ain't going away. The big blind folds and Dave shows his hand (again) - A-3 of spades. In short Dave and I would have gone to war, and the Dialysis kid would have needed some major surgery to survive - a split pot possible but as my 8 was bigger than the 7, I am confident I would have won and been in a very strong position with most players playing weak-tight, alas including me - the folder. As the crystal-merchant says in 'The Alchemist' - "every blessing ignored becomes a curse" - the old-timer later limped in with King-nine (K-9 or electronic dog to those in the know - ha-bloody-ha). I have 9-5 in the big blind and on a flop of K-9-5 I was destined to lose all my chips.

A few hands back I'd gifted Dave a swing of $10,000 with this hand. I'd limped under the gun (first to bet) with 5-2 of diamonds. I'd won the last three hands with J-6 of diamonds, A-8 of diamonds and 6-2 of diamonds, so I couldn't throw the magic 52 away. You may well ask what I was doing playing these hands from early position, but the vibe was there and no-one else was having it, so in stepped me. J-6 and 6-2 both reached show-down, so the table was raising eyebrows or they should have been, but if you meet no resistance....

So I call 5-2 for $600, the small stack raises all-in for $3000 (with Ace-Jack "Ajax") Dialysis says something about a gamble and time for bed and decides to call, so I am obliged to call as I stand to win $9900 at a cost of $2400. Odds of 4-1. The flop comes Q-7-5 and I bet $2500, called by DD with 7-8 offsuit. Next a ten, checked by us both and then a King, which means I can no longer win the main pot as the English short stack has "the nuts" - best possible hand. However there's a side-pot of $5,000 which will make me break-even on the hand. Dialysis is looking for an excuse to fold and like a muppet I check, thus giving up $5,000 to a man who doesn't know what to do with it. One bet and he folds and I've pulled off a major coup. Those $5,000 chips would have meant I'd still have had $10,000 more than Dialysis when the elcectronic dog came-a-snooping.....

I'm putting it down to experience, jetlag, lack of proper food, sleep etc. No in reality I'm seeing a crucial poker lesson that I already know, but in poker as in life we keep making the same mistakes. I will win provided I take enough time to ponder the decision and await for the answer to arrive from that place where intuition resides, between the gut and the head lies the answer. It's called the heart. Enough poker therapy but it does help to get it writ. It was a $65 tourney and there will be a million more.

Sunset in the Sahara

2009-06-24T17:15:00.000-07:00

I'm camped out here at the Sahara - the roller-coaster rolling past the window, the low-roller beginning his 2009 diary, rolling another cigarette on the 13th floor. Technically the 13th floor, but in reality they've called it the 14th owing to some atavistic fear of thirteen....or as a way of disseminating misinformation about the power of thirteen. Twelve has had its day - soon we will move to a 13-month calendar and only then can harmony return to this planet. So believe the Mayans and I.

I am here in Vegas for the 4th consecutive year with nothing but my intention to play in the Main event. At midnight last night I was down $500 in live action - Dialysis Dave proved to be my nemesis in the tournament - and my online account had slipped from $1300 down to just over $500. I put the call out to the poker gods, "Do you want me to play in this or not - give me a break". I took a break and the break was duly given. I needed $1500 for tomorrow's event and a bank-roll to keep me in play as I have 3 months ahead of me which will take me 35,000 miles around the world....

Four hours later, I concluded a 10-hour internet session, with only minor RSI but more importantly $2600 in the coffers. Today I cashed in tomorrow's buy-in, rang up the good burghers of Barclays and was soon handing over 15 bills to the good lady at the Rio. So stage one is complete - tomorrow I play Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo, which has been my most profitable game to date. It's like Texas Holdem, except you get four cards dealt in your hand and not two. Five communal cards on the board, and you have to play two from your hand and three from the board. I guess I've lost most of you by now, so skip to the next paragraph. If you're still here, there's also the Hi-Lo element - where the best low hand is A-2-3-4-5. The idea is to scoop, winning both high and low. I intend to be scooping my way to the buy-in for the Main Event with some change left over, God willing. This will be my 6th WSOP event with a bracelet for the winner.

Sunday sees me leave Vegas for a Rainbow gathering in Taos, New Mexico which takes me to July 4th with the main event beginning on July 3rd,4th,5th or 6th. So in truth I can not tell you where this journey is headed. I am relaxed about it, more so than previous years. I have 3 months in some of the most amazing places in the world, Hawaii, New Zealand, Tahiti, Uluru (for 09/09/09 - I need 8 others to make up the numbers), Bali to name a few. So heads I win, tails I win too. If it is my destiny to be there this year I am confident the money will arrive. This has been my dream since the day I read "Positively 5th Street" and the spark was created. I am re-reading the Alchemist, just at the bit where the shepherd, Santiago heads into the Sahara with the English would-be Alchemist. So it feels right to be here. Three times I've crossed the Sahara....to get to the poker room,three times I've returned to my lofty outpost, poorer but wiser.