So many times I found myself playing, "The Blogger" game, rather than playing my game. Now of course, throwing the odd fun hand into the mix isn't all that bad to be honest. It can keep your opponents guessing as to what you may have held back. But occasionally, I found myself donking off chips with some seriously redonkulous holdings. This is something I never really do when I'm at, "The Office." So my dilemma was finding the right mix of the Blogger Bam-Bam, and the grinder I knew I needed to be.
Final table was a great crowd!
Some of my personal favorite invisibles to sit down at the virtual felt with! It was great to see each and every one of you!
Some good, (questionable?) and bad plays on the night.
I laid down Aces up against Waffles. He told me after that he didn't have a set of ten's and also, despite his very straightening board, he didn't have the straight. I guess I have to believe him, despite his standard draws to gutters. Good lay down or bad, The Grinder in me says it was the right thing to do. High risk calls without the nutz, can get chips moving in the wrong direction in a hurry.
I made an incredibly stupid play fairly late in the game, when I did not get maximum value out of a baby board turned made Quads on 6th. street. SO NOT LIKE ME ! At the time, some of the table were tossing chips around like candy. This was the time to take advantage of a fairly well disguised and pretty powerful hand. I decided to push the envelope, instead of letting others do the work for me. I won the pot of course, but had I given others the necessary time and one more card to catch up, I think it could've been a monster, rather than another medium sized haul.
So many out there try to teach me the "math" in NLHE. But math in Hold'em always comes down to the money involved. I get it and I think I understand it but really, making a play based on pot size value and the probability of your percentage ahead or behind, still comes down to a large amount of gamble. And as we all know, Poker is always a gamble no matter what. Math in STUD however, comes far easier for me. The math does not need to be applied to the pot or it's size. No, the Math in STUD can be directly applied to the cards in play, or sometimes more importantly and very often neglected, the cards OUT of play in the hand. When we got down to six handed, my "calculator" went into overdrive! I really started to feel good about my chances then.
I don't really know what it's like for those that run so well in Hold'Em, when they get into this position late in an event. But for me in STUD, my brain seems to process everything I see so much faster! Decisions are strictly based on known factors and they come so fast and easy. This is NOT meant as a brag, it's more of an astonishment in my own abilities to be honest. It's literally like a switch is thrown and absoloutely everything is seen so much clearer than it was before. For me, it's a very powerful moment. I don't get to feel it that often in Blogger events, it's usually reserved for some very serious grinding sessions as my other alter-ego.
It came down to Waffles, Shrike and I in the money. Goal #1 achieved, I get paid to play. Goal #2 was pretty straight forward, advance my position up the pay scale. And I did! Waffles busted out third as Shrike and I kept putting pressure on his pressure style of play. Head's up, Shrike typed in, "chop?" He had places to go and some work to get done, and I had maybe four hours of possible sleep ahead of me, before the alarm went of in the morning. "K," was all I typed in.
Despite being Waffles self-proclaimed, "bitch" most of the night, a win is a win. Perspectives a funny thing isn't it? Oh and I see I transferred $2 too much to Shrike! I'll keep that in the bank for when we actually get a chance to meet at a Blogger gathering. I like the sounds of him owing me a drink!
I also like the sounds of a Team Canada one, two finish in the Skillz game!
My sincerest thanks for dropping by....
5 comments:
haha great time last night man. had fun playing with you. As I said at the table you know tons more about Stud than I ever will. good job.
Now that is what I can making a grand enterence on the Leaderboard. Good job my friend!!
Nice job!
Congrats on the win BamBam! Good game, well played!
Your prose regarding the STUD game is pretty eye-opening, as it's just funny how little we have in common on this point. You, (like my roommate Joshua,) have an understanding of the STUD game that still seems to completely allude me, (despite my re-reading of your old e-mailed strategy details.) In last night's Skillz game, I felt like a child that had walked into a movie that was halfway over... I was lost and unable to find any adequate frame of reference. (My making the final table was surely only due to being excessively conservative, and folding my way there.)
But while we don't have the same level of STUD understanding, I did indeed relate to your point regarding the epiphany in confidence that often occurs at the felt, especially at the late stages of a tourney. While I've never came close to experiencing this at a STUD-HI game, I can relate to the "very powerful moment" you refer to. Now, if only I can determine how this is attained...
Indeed, I owe you a drink. Deal!
-PL
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