Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Still Here

Hello.....if anyone still stops by I want to say thanks....and I'm sorry for not posting in WAY too long. I've had a ton going on....some good and some potentially bad. Overall, I can't complain and hope to get back to a somewhat regular posting. I have still been playing plenty of poker both live and online. I played in my first WSOP this summer and had a blast. My only regret was not getting the chance to meet up with the good Dr. Pauly. My family has been taking way more of my time which can't be a bad thing. Four children will keep you busy as they grow. The time goes faster and faster and I'm trying my best not to miss out on any of it. I took the family to Disneyland this summer and it was awesome! One of my sons is being tested for a variety of things as he has had various problems since birth. They thought he might have a rare form of Cystic Fibrosis but we've just finished the testing for that and it thankfully seems to not be the case. We are back at square one but that's not all bad when something as scary as cystic fibrosis is on the table.

Anyway....just wanted to stop in and say hello.....long overdue.

Hope all is well in the blogosphere.

Baz Out
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Monday, June 11, 2007

Pre-WSOP 2007

Things have been crazy here at home as we prepare for summer festivities, vacations, and fun.

The past couple of weeks I have been playing a good number of tournaments online. I had a good run in several with a couple of final tables in smaller $10 MTT for several hundred each. The best....and worst one was the nightly 10K gaurantee $10 re-buy on Full Tilt where I found myself as the chip leader with 6 players to go. With about 3 minutes before a break I lost my connection. I freaked. This never happens here. I tried opening a browser and....nothing. I tried several other things before getting on the phone with my provider. I did my best to stress the urgency of the situation and to skip past all of the basic bull---- to get to the bottom of it all. Almost 45 minutes later (around 4 am) we figured out that the connection was working perfectly....something went wrong with my router. Now why I never thought of trying to bypass the router in the first place I'll never know. Bottom line is it worked and I logged back in to see that I was blinded out in third place for a very nice payday.......but there was a sizable difference between 1st and 3rd. I know that I could have been sucked out on and gone out even earlier......but I liked my chances and you don't get that chance every day.

Well.....I'll be heading to Vegas this week! I can't wait. I'll be playing Event #25 on Friday. The 2K NLHE at noon. I will also probably play a deep stack event at the Venetian and/or the Binion's classic events. I will be in town from Thursday until Tuesday so I will see how things are going and go from there. I have to say that I am SUPER PUMPED to play in my first WSOP event. I went back and forth on whether or not I should play or stick with the Venetian events but people who play with me and know me helped convince me to go ahead and do it.

So I am.

Hopefully you've been visiting the good Dr. daily for the straight down and dirty at the WSOP. I know that's where I've been. I also hope to buy the man a beer while in town. Here's hoping there's time and that I can pry him away or catch him for a dinner break at the Tilted Kilt.

Anyway.......I know you're not expecting regular updates.....but I will post info as I can.

Til then....

Baz Out
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Sunday, May 20, 2007

PS Darfur Charity Tourney

The following post has been copied and pasted from The Tao of Poker:
Play if you can....and if you can't.....DONATE!!!!



We got less than 300 players in last week's charity tournament. That was pathetic. My goal is to get at least 1,000 players in this tournament. I need your help. Let's spread the word!


PokerStars is running the Ocean's Thirteen Darfur Charity Tournament next Sunday afternoon at 2:30pm ET.

PokerStars is teaming up with the cast of Ocean's Thirteen to help stop the suffering in the war-torn region of Darfur in the Sudan. If you have not been paying attention, over 400,000 people have already been killed. They launched Not On Our Watch. Their mission is to..."focus global attention and resources to stop and prevent mass atrocities. Drawing on the powerful voice of citizen artists, activists, and cultural leaders, our mission is to generate lifesaving humanitarian assistance and protection for the vulnerable, marginalized, and displaced."

PokerStars is donating $1 million and you can help out by playing in two diffeent charity events. You have a shot to win a ticket to the Ocean's Thirteen premiere in Los Angeles. See below for specific details.
Overview of the Ocean's Thirteen Darfur Charity Tournament:

These tournaments are special re-buy tournaments - the entire prize pool will be matched by PokerStars and donated to the Darfur relief efforts. At the conclusion of the event the prize pool, which will be temporarily awarded to the 1st place finisher, will be removed from the 1st place finisher's account. The amount will then be matched by PokerStars and sent forward to the Darfur charity. Thank you for participating — go re-buy crazy! — it's for a good cause. Good luck!

Date: May 27th 2007, 15:30 ET
Buy-in: $10 plus rebuys.
Prizes: Top 4 receive tickets to June 5th premiere in Los Angeles plus 2 nights hotel and $2k for travel/spending. Top 18 receive autographed copy of "Oceans 13" DVD. Total prize pool will go to charity. PokerStars will match the donation. The tournament is open to all players. Good luck!
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Thursday, May 17, 2007

WSOP BABY

No, I didn't win a seat in the Main Event.

I did, however, book my trip to Vegas during the WSOP.

I plan on playing in Event 25 on June 15th which is a 2K NLHE event. I am also looking into the Binion's tourneys that will be going on and plan on playing a TON of cash games.

If anyone else is going to be out there at this time let me know and hopefully we can hook up. I hope to be purchasing a beer and some shots for the good Dr. Pauly if he can break away for a few minutes of his great coverage.

Mad props goes out to my lovely wife for being on board with, and supporting my WSOP trip.

I'm sure the interest level is minimal to none BUT just in case I misjudge or don't realize who all reads this humble little piece of the blogoshpere I want to inform that I am selling up to half of my action in Event 25. I've already got 15% sold with a real possibility for 10-20% more. Like I said.....I'm playing regardless. Your money is probably better of with this Omaha pro anyway.

Til next time.

Baz
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Sunday, April 22, 2007

Evaluating Play Based on Actions.

I thought rather than post how I played a hand it might be more beneficial to post all the information regarding the hand without revealing what the holdings were or which player I was and simply state the stack sizes, positions, etc. Then we can discuss the thought process from each position with the cards being secondary, initially focusing on just the action and position. Later I will reveal the cards, maybe one position at a time, as well as which position I was in. I think a lot can be learned by thinking of it this way and looking at a range of hands and how that changes or doesn't change as each street is dealt and action ensues. At least I hope this is the case and I hope I can do a good job of giving all of the details.

Here we go.

This is a live weekly tournament that usually has between 20 and 35 players. There is a core group that is almost always there week to week of around 15 players. The core group has a couple of super tight, non-imaginative, straight forward rocks. A handful of weak-tight players, a handful of LAG's and 8 or so solid players that can mix up their game well changing gears and playing the player at times based on reads and prior information since they've played a lot together at this point.

We had 22 players this tournament. The starting chip stack is T5000. We are in the second blind level (25/50) and each level is 15 minutes long until the first break and 20 minutes long after that.

The two players involved in this hand have played a lot of tournaments together, both fall under the solid player category that can change up their game, and have a good percentage of cashes and wins in these tournaments (although maybe some of your opinions on one or both of their plays here will be different).

The hand:

There are two limpers and a MP player makes it T250 to go. It folds to the SB who calls. It folds back to the raiser and they will see a flop heads up. The MP raiser has T7000 and the SB has T6400. There is T675 in the pot.

Range of hands?

The flop comes: 2d 6c Qd

SB checks. MP bets T400. SB check-raises to T1200. MP player thinks for a few moments and makes the call. There is T3075 in the pot.

Hand range narrowed?

The turn comes: 8s

SB leads out T2000. MP player goes in the tank and finally calls. There is T7075 in the pot. The SB is left with T2950 and the MP player is left with T3550.

Hand range narrowed?

The river comes: Ad (putting the third diamond on the board).

The SB makes two distinct piles of chips and counts them. He counts out T1500 in one stack leaving T1450 in the other.

The SB pushes the T1500 stack forward. The MP player goes into the tank again. He asks several questions of the SB getting no response. He goes to muck and then pulls back a couple of times before counting out T1500 and seeing he'll have T2050 left. He makes the call.

What do you think? Who got the pot pushed their way? What were the hands? Was the bet on the end by the SB weakness or strength in a value bet? Do you like the way it was played by one, the other, or both depending on the range of hands?

I'm curious to see thoughts based on purely the action. I will then go the next step and begin revealing the holdings where hopefully more discussion can take place.

Thanks for taking the time and hopefully we can all learn from this approach.

Baz
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Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Still Here

I'm still here! It's been a crazy month. My youngest boy was in the hospital for several days and things have been nuts. He's doing ok now but it was crazy for awhile. Any of you that have an infant or have had an infant knows what it feels like as they are helpless and sometimes there's nothing you can do as their parent to help them out.

Anyway, on the poker front, I've been playing a little online and usually at least once a week live. Online has been going ok. I've been bouncing between MTT, SNG's, and ring games. I've been getting in the money a good percentage of the time in the SNG's.

Live has been going well for the most part as well. The HPT was back at Majestic and I played a qualifier again this year. This time I didn't make the top 20% and didn't qualify so I was bummed but I played well. I won my poker league for the year and will be playing the end of year tournament this weekend. Can't wait to do a little gloating and play in the bigger buy in year end event. I also have been going to another bigger buy in game regularly. The past two in a row I won one and came in second the next time. That was awesome. I also played a friendly home game with a smaller buy in ($20 1st two SNG's and $40 the 3rd). I won the second and third games there going out early in the 1st game when I got my chips in WAY ahead.

I also have my fantasy baseball draft this weekend. It's a day I look forward to all year. It's a marathon day but I love it. My keepers aren't the best as I made a run at the title last year before slipping to 5th....but I have a few tricks up my sleeve.

Anyway, just wanted to give a quick update.

Sorry for my absence lately.....family duties have been raging.

Til next time.

Baz out
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Friday, February 23, 2007

Thanks to Hoy!

Just a quick update:

First off I want to thank Hoy for pointing out Full Tilt's satellite's to the nightly 30K gaurantee. I don't know how I missed these all this time. I played my first satellite last night and got my seat in the 30K where I went on to money. I should have final tables but lost half my stack when we were down to 56 players and had to scramble from there. Anyway, I'll be a regular in that satellite and hopefully the 30K. Thanks Hoy! Much like him I am committed to my family during the day and on weekends so I don't get the opportunity to play in most of the bigger gaurantees. Family comes first.

While I played the satellite I also played in my first Riverchaser's tourney. I didn't fare so well there going out bottom third.

I played my regular home game last Saturday and it was a rare bigger buy-in tourney which brought out 16 players. The structure was improved as we had 30 minute levels and more starting chips and I took it down for a nice win. I then went to Empress on Monday and was down about 1/2 my buy-in playing 5/10 when I took off. Most of it was due to playing a hand about as bad as I've played a hand in a LONG time. I was up against quads and a boat....brutal.

Doyle's Room is pulling out of the U.S. and I moved the money I had there directly over to Full Tilt with no trouble at all. I am still waiting on my epassporte account to get finalized which should be the middle of this week. We'll see how that ends up working out. Most of my time will be spent on Full Tilt and Absolute for now.

Also, the Heartland Poker Tour will be back at MSII in March (actually 3 times this year). I'll be looking to qualify again this year and hopefully make a run at some good money. We might run some home game satellites for the qualifiers and I might buy myself directly in like I did last year. We will see.

In the meantime you can find me some nights on Full Tilt in the satellite to the 30K, the 30K, and probably the Daily Doubles at times as well. I also may try and get a few tokens.

Til then.

Baz Out
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