Welcome to my second official blog and I hope most of you made it to the end to know that I am in fact NOT the biggest movie retard on the planet and that I was just fucking with you about Superbad J. In fact I have the urge to see it again right now. Actually I had the urge to see it again right after I walked out of the movie. Just like any Judd Apatow movie it’s a necessity to see it twice because there is just so much going on in every scene. There are so many one-liners that you just don’t have enough time to embrace it before the next one. I’d have to say the same thing about Adam Sandler’s masterpiece I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. I have to see that again as well. It’s a different type of humor but equally funny. The scenes with Rob Schneider acting as a gay Asian was probably one of the best things I have ever seen in any movie. I could not stop laughing. Just the fact that underneath it all I knew it was Rob Schneider was enough for me to laugh uncontrollably. “It’s like a circle”.
I think you could easily have a legitimate discussion about which movie had more hilarity: Knocked Up, Grandma’s Boy, Superbad, or I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Some people think it’s a landslide victory for Superbad, then other’s Grandma’s Boy. I mean that scene in Grandma’s Boy where he’s whacking it to his friend’s doll is priceless. I’m stopping there because, well, it’s quite graphic and I don’t want to ruin it if there’s an off chance some miserable soul hasn’t seen Grandma’s Boy yet. And some would say Knocked Up and Chuck and Larry which actually have a little bit of substance to it. Although that doesn’t really have much to do with funniness, it should earn some kudos points. I think once I’ve seen all four movies twice I’ll actually try to tackle that discussion.
Just to give you a heads up, this blog I’ll be talking a decent amount about poker so ‘deal’ with it. Oh how I love puns.
Tuesday was a pretty blah day of poker for me. I think I cashed 2, maybe 3 tourneys all day. I wasn’t playing bad but I wasn’t catching too many breaks. I probably dropped about 3k on the day.
Wednesday was probably the sickest day I’ve ever had. On the day I had 4 final tables: a 3-way chop, a 2nd, a 3rd, and a 5th. As well as 4 other cashes. All in all I ended up profiting around 40k. The beginning of the day started off pretty slow but I did one out someone playing 2/4 PLO and getting way too many chips in with middle set when he clearly had top set. Here’s the hand history if anyone cares to see just how bad I played it.
Omaha Pot Limit ($2/$4) - 2007/08/29 - 14:42:18 (ET)
Table 'Hiera' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: dcruz ($806.80 in chips)
Seat 2: ihatecake ($380.40 in chips)
Seat 3: davedaburner ($1048.20 in chips)
Seat 4: Arena2 ($234 in chips)
Seat 5: Chango18 ($382.60 in chips)
Seat 6: Roothlus ($400 in chips)
Chango18: posts small blind $2
Roothlus: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Roothlus [5d Ah 7d 5h]
dcruz: raises $4 to $8
ihatecake: folds
davedaburner: folds
Arena2: folds
Chango18: calls $6
Roothlus: calls $4
*** FLOP *** [Jh 3s 5s]
Chango18: bets $18
Roothlus: raises $34 to $52
dcruz: folds
Chango18: raises $126.80 to $178.80
Roothlus: raises $213.20 to $392 and is all-in
Chango18: calls $195.80 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [Jh 3s 5s] [5c]
*** RIVER *** [Jh 3s 5s 5c] [3c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Chango18: shows [Tc Js 4c Jd] (a full house, Jacks full of Fives)
Roothlus: shows [5d Ah 7d 5h] (four of a kind, Fives)
Roothlus collected $770.20 from pot
I busted out of the 100r and 50r in unique fashion. The 50r I had Jacks lose to Tens when he ran the gutshot straight on me. The 100r was awesomely bad. In fact, it was so unique that I felt the need to save the hand history specifically to show it on here. Without much further ado, here it is:
PokerStars Game #11759776561: Tournament #59096513, $100+$9 Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2007/08/29 - 16:16:48 (ET)
Table '59096513 15' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: ibetiwin (5665 in chips)
Seat 2: iCeVeNoM (23435 in chips)
Seat 3: Premier (22471 in chips)
Seat 4: Rafaello81 (7653 in chips)
Seat 5: Roothlus (7611 in chips)
Seat 6: alski21 (4476 in chips)
Seat 7: t1wO (26965 in chips)
Seat 8: ComeOnPhish (11580 in chips)
Seat 9: mlowe14 (15976 in chips)
ibetiwin: posts the ante 50
iCeVeNoM: posts the ante 50
Premier: posts the ante 50
Rafaello81: posts the ante 50
Roothlus: posts the ante 50
alski21: posts the ante 50
t1wO: posts the ante 50
ComeOnPhish: posts the ante 50
mlowe14: posts the ante 50
Rafaello81: posts small blind 300
Roothlus: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Roothlus [Jh Qc]
alski21: folds
t1wO: folds
ComeOnPhish: folds
mlowe14: folds
ibetiwin: folds
iCeVeNoM: folds
Premier: folds
Rafaello81: calls 300
Roothlus: raises 6961 to 7561 and is all-in
Rafaello81: calls 6961
*** FLOP *** [4s 5h Ah]
Premier said, "lol"
*** TURN *** [4s 5h Ah] [Qs]
*** RIVER *** [4s 5h Ah Qs] [2s]
iCeVeNoM said, ">>>>>."
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Rafaello81: shows [2h 4h] (two pair, Fours and Deuces)
Roothlus: shows [Jh Qc] (a pair of Queens)
Rafaello81 collected 15572 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Um, LOL, pretty impressive right? Check-calling with 24hh. Must’ve put me on 23o or pocket ones. To his defense I had been shoving like that 3 or 4 times over the past couple orbits. Some with hands and some with out. He had also limped in the small blind a few times so I felt like it was a good spot to just take down some chips and on top of that I had sucked out on him as well. Maybe it was a spite call, who knows? Irregardless, the call was astonishing. By the way, does anyone know why all of a sudden people say irregardless? Is there a difference between that and regardless? It’s been irking me lately.
The next tourney I did well in was the 30r on Full Tilt Poker, which is the closest I will come to the Party Poker 30r. That tourney was legendary for the rebuy glitch where you could go all-in no matter if you had 100 chips or 100,000 chips and rebuy. So you could essentially buy your stack. It was lovely. The FTP 30r doesn’t have that glitch but it sure has the same cluelessness of the players. Two-thirds of the field do not double rebuy and play it like a freezeout with a 2000 chip bonus at the end of the hour which is just beautiful for the everyday players. It ends up being a lot of fun because you get to prey on all these helpless tightwads while having a good amount of top-notch players playing the tourney as well. It provides for a real fun dynamic. I love getting involved with good players in this tourney because it’s usually deep and we usually have tons of chips as well as we are playing overly aggressive.
I ran pretty sick in the tourney. This hand will pretty much sum up just how sick it was:
Full Tilt Poker Game #3403114221: $9,500 Guarantee (Rebuy) (25481161), Table 5 - 400/800 Ante 100 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:42:39 ET - 2007/08/29
Seat 1: purethoughts (26,685)
Seat 2: Roothlus (72,627)
Seat 3: mhs8870 (38,845)
Seat 6: Lausey (58,302)
Seat 7: bigganutz (38,944)
Seat 8: yelwahs (25,838)
Seat 9: victor 36 (28,309)
purethoughts antes 100
Roothlus antes 100
mhs8870 antes 100
Lausey antes 100
bigganutz antes 100
yelwahs antes 100
victor 36 antes 100
bigganutz posts the small blind of 400
yelwahs posts the big blind of 800
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Roothlus [3h 6h]
victor 36 folds
purethoughts folds
Roothlus raises to 1,975
mhs8870 folds
Lausey folds
bigganutz calls 1,575
yelwahs folds
*** FLOP *** [8h Jc 4h]
bigganutz checks
Roothlus has 15 seconds left to act
Roothlus bets 3,775
bigganutz calls 3,775
*** TURN *** [8h Jc 4h] [Th]
bigganutz bets 6,000
Roothlus raises to 19,200
bigganutz raises to 33,094, and is all in
Roothlus calls 13,894
bigganutz shows [Js Jh]
Roothlus shows [3h 6h]
*** RIVER *** [8h Jc 4h Th] [Kc]
bigganutz shows three of a kind, Jacks
Roothlus shows a flush, Ten high
Roothlus wins the pot (79,188) with a flush, Ten high
bigganutz stands up
Yikes at that hand. What bad luck for that guy. Not only did he hit his set but he had heart redraw on the turn. So he could’ve hit any heart (7 outs) or paired the board (10 outs) to win the pot. On top of that he managed to go up against one of the few guys who could actually bust him in the entire tourney. After this hand I had over 100k in chips, more than 130 big blinds at 400/800 and needless to say it would’ve been a Dmitri Nobles-esque blowup to not make the final table. I ended up getting 2nd partly because I was playing 7 other tables at the time and the guy was taking the full 15 seconds on every street which was frustrating me a bit. He was really tight as well and I was getting impatient knowing it was going to be such a long heads up with this guy. Eventually I was down to 200k at 6k/12k and shoved A2o into his AK. Whatever, no biggie, I was pleased with my play and there were plenty of tourneys left and 3k ain’t too shabby.
The next final table was in the 200 turbo on FTP. I love this tourney. Not because I run sick in it, but because when the blinds finally start catching up to you the action totally heats up. You are also forced to make certain gambles that you normally wouldn’t in a slower tournament. It’s a tourney that you have to hammer out small edges more often than normal but not until the blinds really escalate. It’s similar to a sit-n-go but not as extreme. As usual in any tourney where preflop play is more important, suck outs run rampant. Par for the course I had KK vs AA where the A flopped and then I ran the straight for the win. That was a beaut. Then I had A10 vs JJ. A on flop, yawn. Just standard RoothBoxing. After all was said and done, I got 3rd in it. My ROI(return on investment for anyone not in the poker world lol) has got to be filthy in that tournament. I’ve played it twice and managed to get 3rd both times. Another thing about it is how quick it’s done. It’s 8-9k for first and is done within 2 hours. Lovely. So that was another 4k to fatten the roll.
My 3rd final table was the 50 1rebuy 1addon. I was at 8k after the add-on and grinded that tourney out hardcore. At 400/800 I had only chipped up to 12k. I waited for spots here and there and slowly accumulated chips until eventually I limped Aces in 3rd position, 4th position who was a really aggressive player raised, and 6th position shoved. So by the time I jumped into the pot there was already a ton in the pot. My Aces held vs. his AK and after that I just grinded myself to a 5th place finish for 1k. I wasn’t too focused on this tourney partly because I was heads up in the 30r as well. I also was extremely short through the tournament. The players were playing so reckless and loose that I had no choice but to wait it out for hands. When I finally got it in I had AJ against QJ and the guy flopped the nut straight on me lol. And that was that.
The night session went great. I almost final tabled the night 30r as well but sputtered out in 11th after reshoving with KQ with plenty of fold equity only to be called by QJ??? He flopped a jack and that was game over. I was chiplead of that tourney for a little bit too but blew half my stack on a move with 95hh against agriffrod when there was no reason whatsoever for me to make any such move. After that I went deep in the FTP 6-max 100r which is a great tourney. 6-max is a blast period and there should be many more of these shorthanded tourneys. I was down to 3k early on after the rebuy period but gradually chipped up until I had a solid stack in the money. With 18 left I had blinded down for a few orbits and found myself short and on the button I shoved A7hh smack into SCTrojan’s Queens. Game over but yet another 1k cash.
My fourth and final final table of the night was by far the toughest and most rewarding one all day. It was the $300 150k guaranteed on Poker Stars. I truly enjoy this tournament but I haven’t had much luck in it aside from one time when I went pretty deep only to have QQ go down to A7. But tonight would be different. Right off the bat I had Aces and the flop came A73. I bet and got check-raised on the flop. I smooth called. Before I put in that reraise I want to know for sure that this guy is strong, otherwise I’m just letting the guy off his bluff or any Ace that isn’t that strong. On top of that it’s hard to really believe that he has the Ace in his hand when it’s the only one left in the deck. Anyways, the turn came 7 and he bet again. I raised and he called. River 7 and I shoved and the guy thought for a few seconds before calling off with AJ. GG buddy and thanks for the dub. Not much he could really do though. It’s a spot where you might think you are beat and then the turn and river make the hand even sketchier by making you think that you might be good. When you think about it I could only have AA and a 7 which was unlikely for me to call a check-raise on the flop with that. So basically I could only have AA and AA only which I did in fact have lol.
After that I just chilled out for a bit and didn’t do much until 75/150 where I started seeing hands left and right but I didn’t stack anyone until I somehow got a guy to check-call three bets with mid-pair when I had the nut flush. By 100/200 I was at 14k and by 200/400 I was at 25k. I leveled off for a bit after making a bad call on Rich Fish but he played the hand well and I couldn’t put him on the straight on a 4-straighted board. I was right, but wrong. He didn’t have the straight, just a set. Ouch. Luckily they moved me from his table which I hated because he was on my direct left. Slowly but surely I grinded to 30k. I didn’t do much for a while. I had such a rush of cards for a good 2 hours then I went card dead for a bit. I’m just happy it happened when I could afford to blind off for a little bit not at a later more important point. Then I picked up AK and won a coin flip against QQ to get me to 60k. It wasn’t until about 30 people left that I caught my 2nd rush of cards. I fell into a dream spot with AA where a player raised, another player reraised almost half his stack and I was yet to act in the big blind. I shoved, the initial raiser folded and the other player thought forever before finally calling with Jacks. I held for that huge pot and reached 6 figures for the first time all night. Then I saw Aces again and hit another boat only to have AJ pay me off again. Man, I run bad.
With 2 tables left I had amassed 170k and had the chip leader two to my right. That’s when the biggest pot of the tourney went down. He raised my big blind on the button and I defended with 55. It was actually the first time all night I was in a hand solely for setmining and the flop came down a delicious Q45 rainbow. He bet 13k into 20k, I min-raised him and he made it 55k to go. At this point I’m slightly worried that he might have QQ but he could easily have had 44 or even Aces. So I shove not really expecting a call, more expecting to just take down the already massive pot. And then he snap-called and I thought I was done. Amazingly he flipped over KQ and on the turn he was drawing dead and I now had over 350k. Maybe he didn’t believe me or just got caught up in the hand but there was no reason for him to not believe me. I hadn’t been screwing around with anyone all night and he had played with me plenty. It was quite generous of him.
At the final table I was chip leader by a good 100k or so after Rainkhan lost about 60k to me in a hand on the final table bubble. The first 20 minutes or so no one really played many pots. I guess it was because there was a really short short stack that everyone was waiting for to bust. During this I won most of my pots uncontested and chipped up to 500k. He eventually busted, then I busted Rainkhan after my A2o held vs his KJ. We were 7-handed for a bit before two more people busted and we were officially getting down to the nitty gritty. That’s when the toughest spot of the tournament came up for me. Some people had told me that Varico occasionally made preflop bluffs. He had been raising his button every chance he had so I looked down at AQ and was ecstatic about it. Here’s the hand history without the results:
PokerStars Game #11770198069: Tournament #58809313, $300+$20 Hold'em No Limit - Level XX (4000/8000) - 2007/08/30 - 04:16:01 (ET)
Table '58809313 80' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: SANBOB (361808 in chips)
Seat 2: CaerusMax (174934 in chips)
Seat 3: VARICO (392716 in chips)
Seat 4: Roothlus (413666 in chips)
Seat 8: ryanbluf (501876 in chips)
SANBOB: posts the ante 400
CaerusMax: posts the ante 400
VARICO: posts the ante 400
Roothlus: posts the ante 400
ryanbluf: posts the ante 400
Roothlus: posts small blind 4000
ryanbluf: posts big blind 8000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Roothlus [As Qc]
SANBOB: folds
CaerusMax: folds
VARICO: raises 16000 to 24000
Roothlus: raises 51755 to 75755
ryanbluf: folds
VARICO: raises 164245 to 240000
Roothlus:
I really didn’t want to bust 5-handed because I really felt destine to go farther and in turn I think I shied away from calling here but more importantly, I wasn’t sure AQ was ahead at all. That play looked like a play you would do with a hand like AK where you are making your opponent think that his hand is stronger than it is by reraising instead of shoving. Occasionally it works but if I know that people do it, I pick it off easier as well. It could’ve also been some pair like 88 or 99 and it could’ve also been a big big hand. I wasn’t sure at all and in turn my indecision led to me folding possibly the best hand. But then again, I had literally been rock solid all night so why would he make a move on me when I had been so solid unless he’s just that ballsy. It was definitely a tough tough spot and I hated that I folded after the fact but who knows, it could’ve been the right move.
Shortly after that Varico won a coin flip to bust another player. I took a stand against another player and shoved to his reraise with 66 and he called off with A10. A six speared on the flop and I found myself chip lead 3 handed. I didn’t have a huge lead and losing one moderately sized pot would put me in 3rd. Varico and the other player, who from what I could see was better than average, brought up a chip count chop where we would leave 10k for first. Even though a part of me wanted to play for the win and the full 50 grand, I decided that it was a smart decision to take the guaranteed 31k for myself and have a chance at the last 10k. After we agreed on the chop things didn’t go well for me and I busted out in 3rd. It was bittersweet but any cash is always bittersweet in poker with the exception of 1st. So, that was my sickest day ever.
Once again I apologize for the long drawn out report of my poker day. Now to the good stuff. On Thursday I took the day off and just took it easy. I woke up early at the crack of noon because my soccer jerseys arrived and I had to sign for it. Damn next-day shipping! I’ve recently become obsessed with soccer solely because my friends got me into Fifa 07 on Xbox 360. It’s an amazing game and I’d even go as far to say that it’s better than Madden. So once I started liking soccer, I started watching games, then I started buying jerseys and hopefully soon I’ll be going to my very first European football game. The whole jersey thing has become a separate obsession. I had 6 and then these 3 three arrived today. I bought Thierry Henry, Ricardo Kaka, and David Beckham jerseys and if any girl knows who all three of those players are, well then, we need to hook up ASAP or if you play Fifa 07 that’s even hotter. The Thierry Henry jersey is by far my favorite. Here’s a pic of it:
It looks soooo sweet!
Anyways, I was supposed to go to Gainesville for the Gator’s home opener but we opted to go on Friday instead. That night I decided to go out with my roommate Zhen and his friend Andrew. We went to a place called Pounders. It’s a gay club I like to frequent from time to time. Actually, I go there literally every time I go out. Actually it’s not a gay club at all and I’m just punking you again. Actually it’s more like a bar with a decent sized dance floor. Once we got into the heterosexual club it was decent. They played good music and had free drinks until 12AM. The entire day I was in a funk for no idea so going out and experiencing some Orlando nightlife was enjoyable.
On Friday Zhen, Andrew, and I drove to Gainesville. That took 3 full hours. There was traffic on the Florida Turnpike for some reason and there literally never is unless some ridiculous thing happens like when a tractor trailer flips over or some truck spills cartons of eggs all over the place. When we got there we went to Dragonfly, the best sushi restaurant that I’ve come across and I’ve been to plenty of good sushi joints. At least six different top-notch places in Vegas and this place in Gainesville is by far the best. They have this sushi roll there called the Dragonfly. How original, right??? To tell you the truth now that I think about it, I don’t remember the exact fish that’s in it. I think it’s yellowtail but I’m not sure but it doesn't matter. Just get it because it's that good. Okay, so it’s basically a yellowtail roll with spicy mayo on top of it but what makes it the most amazing roll is they toast the spicy mayo until it’s nice and crusty. Even though nothing comes close to the Dragonfly I’d still give all the rolls that I’ve had there a minimum 7.5 out of 10. If you ever make it to Gainesville, FL you should definitely go there.
After that scrumbtrulescent meal we attempted to go to a local bar named Gator City but because it was the Gator’s home opener it was packed to the brim. We barely found parking. Once we got in there we realized how not fun trying to navigate through a crowded bar was and abruptly left. Then we went to another bar named Mojito’s where we got ‘the hook up’ and didn’t have to pay for cover. I don’t know about you but to me, the meaning the phrase, the hook up, used to mean so much more. Or maybe it never did it just sounded really really fucking cool when one of your boys was like “Man, I got the hook-up at this club tonight.” So in your head you expect the world when in reality the only thing that’s really happening is you get the cover charged waived or maybe you get some free soda at a restaurant. Maybe instead of ‘hooked up’ it should be ‘help you out a little bit’ but I guess that doesn’t sound nearly as cool. Anyways, we left Mojito’s after realizing it sucked and that the night was pretty much shot. We went home and regrouped for tomorrow.
On Saturday I woke up bright and early, well Sean woke me up bright and early because there was absolutely no shot whatsoever of me waking up at 10:00AM on my own. We went over to The Swamp and attempted to scalp some tickets. Last year the tickets were selling for $20 a piece at game time but because the Gators are the sickest team in the country face value is now $40 a piece. That’s just straight up robbery but we found someone to sell 2 tickets for $60 total. They were actually pretty good seats: upper deck but behind the end zone so we got to see the game like I was playing Madden or something. I could see all the routes and the plays go down perfectly which really added to the game. However the game wasn’t much for excitement. Well, it wasn’t bad to watch. Tim Tebow and Percey Harvin played outstanding and the offense looked more streamline than last year. It's just that they were playing freakin' Western Kentucky. Who??? Exactly. The defense was the only thing that looked like an issue but hopefully that will come together down the road. Florida was beating Western Kentucky 49-3 before the game got called due to lightning storms. Luckily we left before the rain fell down and washed away my sanity. Kudos to anyone who actually gets that.
Once we left the game, we got some grub, and just chilled out at my friend Rob’s place. I was going to take a nap but it worked out that the Full Tilt 100rebuy was starting just as I was coming home so I jumped in that. I was in for 1300 and ended up getting 15th after I ran into bigger hands in back to back hands. Whatever, at least I was able to half of what I was in for back.
That night we got some bottles at this place called Whiskey Room which I’d say is the best place to party in Gainesville. Unfortunately, that’s not saying much. Whatever good club or bar you go to in Gainesville these days it’s overcrowded due to the 70,000 students that go there now. It’s also just hard to compare Gainesville clubs to Las Vegas clubs once you’ve been spoiled by Pure and Body English. Oh my God, Body English. If you’re ever in Vegas GO THERE. We had a solid group of seven and we all got wasted. Thus, it was a good night. However, Rob got a little too crunk. At one point he almost fell into a glass table but Zhen stopped him from doing so. Then he started pushing girls away from our V.I.P. area because they were overflowing from the V.I.P. table next to us. He was like “Why you all up my area?!” with some sass. The girl was like “I’m sorry I didn’t realize. I’ll move.” totally being sincere. “Yea that’s right! You better move!” She had no idea she was doing anything wrong but Rob took total offense to it. It was pretty funny to watch to say the least.
