ITH Born
Date: Thu, Apr 3, 2008 Professional Tournament Internet Live
Isabel Teresa Hilger was born April 2nd at 2:58 PM. She came into the world at 7 lbs and 20 inches. Both mother and daughter are doing great. I'm hoping the next few months goes just like the last 24 hours - Isabel has been fantastic. She barely cries, is on a good schedule, and feeding well. She has a full head of very black hair. I think she has her mother's nose. Most importantly (at least for Grandma and Mom), she has very long eyelashes.
Not running good
Date: Sun, Mar 30, 2008 Professional Tournament Internet Live
I haven't done very well the last few Sundays. On Saturday, I had a couple of hours to blow and played a 5-table $50 sitngo. 45 players and I take it down. I got so lucky towards the end. I'm waiting to get lucky like that when the real bucks matter!
Today, I literally got knocked out at the same time in the two biggest tourneys of the day. I have pretty good emotional control but that's a hard swipe at the same time!
I did run very deep in the Cake WSOP satellite. Unfortunately, I finished 6th and they gave away 3 seats. I was awarded $720 for my efforts. I went out with KK vs A9s. I raised UTG 25% of my stack and the SB with a big stack pushed me allin. I'm a little surprised by his move as he had such a big stack and could just coast into 3rd place without taking big risks. Cake by far has the fishiest tourneys on the web. The players overall are just very bad.
I played 9 tourneys today and am mentally exhausted. I just don't see how some of these guys play over 20 in a day.
Still waiting for the baby :). I may not be playing for a while which could be a good thing given how crummy I have done lately.
Not running good
Date: Sun, Mar 30, 2008 Professional Tournament Internet Live
I haven't done very well the last few Sundays. On Saturday, I had a couple of hours to blow and played a 5-table $50 sitngo. 45 players and I take it down. I got so lucky towards the end. I'm waiting to get lucky like that when the real bucks matter!
Today, I literally got knocked out at the same time in the two biggest tourneys of the day. I have pretty good emotional control but that's a hard swipe at the same time!
I did run very deep in the Cake WSOP satellite. Unfortunately, I finished 6th and they gave away 3 seats. I was awarded $720 for my efforts. I went out with KK vs A9s. I raised UTG 25% of my stack and the SB with a big stack pushed me allin. I'm a little surprised by his move as he had such a big stack and could just coast into 3rd place without taking big risks. Cake by far has the fishiest tourneys on the web. The players overall are just very bad.
I played 9 tourneys today and am mentally exhausted. I just don't see how some of these guys play over 20 in a day.
Still waiting for the baby :). I may not be playing for a while which could be a good thing given how crummy I have done lately.
Good vibes
Date: Thu, Mar 27, 2008 Professional Tournament Internet Live
You know how you sometimes just wake up and feel great. This is one of those days.
I think the main reason is that we are now finally ready and prepared for our new arrival in the next couple of weeks - Isabel. Last night I picked up my mother-in-law from the airport and she is really the last piece of the puzzle in having the house organized and ready to go have our baby.
I have been working my ass off the last month with the main objective of getting work stuff done before Isabel's arrival. I don't think I announced this before, but Albert, my good friend and Operations Manager of my website, left the company at the end of February. I am now back to managing the day-to-operations. It is adding a lot more work to an already hectic schedule, but I must say that I am enjoying it. I was really worried as I have been separated from the day-to-day operations for quite some time now and wasn't sure if I would be motivated in getting back into the details.
But the fact is, I love this stuff. I love ITH, I love the website, I love the business side of things and I'm having fun even though it is a lot more work. We have been making a lot of small little modifications to the site and most of them are now complete.
I have also worked hard on getting the hands book draft finished so that the copyeditor can get busy. He is busy and most of my part is finished. Between those two things, I feel good about the business side of things and finally feel "relaxed". Now I can concentrate on our little baby's arrival and enjoy the moment. But I'm sure after those first couple of weeks, it will be full-steam ahead as I crank out the book cover, typesetting, and printing of the book as well as move ahead with some other ideas I have for the websites.
Speaking of websites, we just launched www.winewonks.com, a sister site to www.pokerwonks.com. You can see what my two favorites pasttimes are :). I love blogging and I am excited about both pokerwonks and winewonks and what they could do in the future. One thing we have planned is to expand beyond blogs and allow people to post articles, videos, and pictures.
So,
ith - ready
winewonks - ready
hands book - more or less ready
house organized - ready
reinforcements arrived - yes! (my mother-in-law)
It's time to have a baby!
ITH to be born soon!
Date: Tue, Mar 25, 2008 Professional Tournament Internet Live
Just a coincidence, our daughter, Isabel Teresa Hilger, will be born soon. I say coincidence because her initials are ITH. My first book and website are commonly known as ITH and now the same will be for my first daughter.
I haven't played much poker lately. Last Sunday my wife wasn't feeling very good so I watched the boys. The week before, I did get to play on Sunday, but missed the earlier tourneys and started at 6 with the FTP 750K. I final tabled the 100RB at Stars, but fell short in 9th place. I was chip leader with 11 players left and then was knocked out within one orbit in a string of hands.
The first I was in the SB with A3 and it was folded to me. My opponent had an M of 6. My thinking was if I pushed, I would only be called by better hands. If I limped, I might induce worst hands to make a move. The problem with that thinking is that my hand isn't that much of a favorite over any hand. I didn't really want to be involved in a big hand vs KJ for example. My opponent's stack size was really awkward for my hand no matter what I did. He pushed with A8 and I called and lost.
A few hands later I raise from middle with 99. The BB, a very loose and aggressive player reraises me practically all-in. I call, we get it allin on the flop and my opponent hit a Q with AQ.
2 hands later, an opponent raises before me, I RR with AKs, and some guy pushes over me with 77. I was practically pot committed so I can only assume that he thought I was on tilt, but even then I am not sure I understand his play. He won the race and I was out. Very, very disappointing finish as I thought I had a great chance at winning that one.
With the baby due soon, I'm not sure how much poker I will be playing. I am working hard on my websites and books trying to get everything organized before the baby arrives. The hands book is still on schedule for a late May release, but it might run into June.
Cooler Day
Date: Mon, Mar 10, 2008 Professional Tournament Internet Live
I had an incredibly frustrating day yesterday in the Sunday tournaments, striking out in all of them. It was one of those days where I just had a lot of really good 2nd best hands. QQ vs AA, set vs straight, trips vs straight, etc. It's frustrating to lose so many hands where I am behind, as you start to question yourself, but I think in most of them they were simply coolers hard to get away from them. And in all of them, I never sucked out on anyone. I really don't recall in 10 tournaments winning a significant hand where I was behind.
This week I'll be trying to wrap up the draft for the Hands book. One section is already in our copyeditors hands and hopefully I'll get him the rest by the end of the week. The goal is to have everything wrapped up by the end of the month as we are expecting a new baby around the beginning of April. Then in April and May I will wrap up All About Limit Hold'em, which is practically already finished, but the Hands book has taken priority for now. That will keep me busy until WSOP time. After the WSOP will we start wrapping up Hands, Volume II. Sometime in the Fall I hope to have a nice rest.
Cooler Day
Date: Mon, Mar 10, 2008 Professional Tournament Internet Live
I had an incredibly frustrating day yesterday in the Sunday tournaments, striking out in all of them. It was one of those days where I just had a lot of really good 2nd best hands. QQ vs AA, set vs straight, trips vs straight, etc. It's frustrating to lose so many hands where I am behind, as you start to question yourself, but I think in most of them they were simply coolers hard to get away from them. And in all of them, I never sucked out on anyone. I really don't recall in 10 tournaments winning a significant hand where I was behind.
This week I'll be trying to wrap up the draft for the Hands book. One section is already in our copyeditors hands and hopefully I'll get him the rest by the end of the week. The goal is to have everything wrapped up by the end of the month as we are expecting a new baby around the beginning of April. Then in April and May I will wrap up All About Limit Hold'em, which is practically already finished, but the Hands book has taken priority for now. That will keep me busy until WSOP time. After the WSOP will we start wrapping up Hands, Volume II. Sometime in the Fall I hope to have a nice rest.
Home game and Omaha
Date: Fri, Mar 7, 2008 Professional Tournament Internet Live
I have been very busy the last couple of weeks working on the Pearl/Ape/Rizen book, so I haven't been playing much. However, I did get a game together at my house last Saturday night with a bunch of buddies. I think there was 8 of us and we played $.50-$1 NL. None of these guys are serious poker players except for Albert so it's more just an excuse to get together and drink a lot. For the first time in a long time, I finally managed to win in a home game winning about $100. I drank way too much, but I think I played very good laying down a lot of 2nd best hands. My only mistake of the night was when an opponent overbet the river by 3x pot and I just knew he was weak but folded my 2nd pair. He showed a complete bluff. You have to trust your instincts!
This week was PL Omaha week in the ITH Forums. A bunch of us decided to give a "new" game a try. I have played very, very little Omaha so know little about the game. The outs and odds give me a headache. But I did manage to win big both nights. We played .25-50 with a $50 buyin. I won $60 the first night and about $200 the 2nd night! It is a fun game but would take a lot of effort on my part to develop my skills and I just don't have the time right now. Maybe someday I'll put some effort into learning that game really well.
I do plan on playing Sunday and am feeling a little better health-wise so I hope I can have some great results.
By the way, we are working hard on the Hands book to hopefully get it out in late May.
A horrendous but profitable Sunday
Date: Mon, Feb 25, 2008 Professional Tournament Internet Live
I haven’t posted in the blog for a while. First, I’ve been sick. Second, I haven’t played a lot of poker. I almost didn’t play yesterday as I wasn’t feeling great, but decided to do so anyhow for better or worst.
I was sitted at Raymer’s table in the PS Million $500 tourney. One interesting hand early in the tourney. Raymer raises early, a middle player calls and I am next to act with KK. I am thinking about what to raise, if I should, how much to raise, and then boom – I folded my hand because of a timeout. I am so used to PS kicking in the timer that I forgot it doesn’t do that before the flop unless you have money invested in the pot. Ouch – not a good start.
I then made a boneheaded play in the UB $200 event and decided this wasn’t going to be my day. I decided to cut my losses and I unregistered all of the events I had planned to play and would just enjoy the night with my family until I doubled up in the $50 buyin tourney. It was approaching 6:00 and it looked like I would be in the $50 for a while so I went ahead and registered for the 750K at FTP. I got knocked out of the $50 and the PS tourney and was left with just the FTP.
With about 100 players left until the money, the most boneheaded thing happened at my table. One of the short stacks typed in PLAY SLOW. A conversation started up and 8 of the 10 players at the table allowed their time to tick down to the very last second on EVERY hand. It was torture. I normally don’t tell players how to play but I told everyone they were just doing themselves more harm than good. Fortunately, I did manage to increase my stack by 20% or so, but probably not nearly as much as I would have if my table had played like normal. They were all amatuers, but they did all cash – woohoo for them! The tourney paid about 660 players and all of them were knocked out except for 2 with 200 players remaining. It was absolute torture playing at that table. First place pays $160K and they were trying to win $250. Even after the bubble burst, one of the players played slow until he was knocked out with about 150 players remaining.
I basically played terrible in all 4 of my tourneys, but once we got close to the bubble I did kick in and start to concentrate. I consistently kept my stack at about half the average all the way from 600 players down to about 70 when I finally got knocked out. It was pretty boring poker though. My stack wasn’t large enough to reraise with folding equity and I didn’t have enough to make a normal raise before the flop without being pot-committed, so it was all-in every time I played a hand.
The good news is that I did end up posting a profit for the day even though I felt like I was completely off my game.
Congrats to Tall Paul from the ITH forums for finishing in the top 60 in the Sunday Millions and Pearljammer who finished 20th in the FTP 750K.
My "poopie" just burbed
Date: Thu, Feb 7, 2008 Professional Tournament Internet Live
At the end of their lives a lot of people will have some regrets:
- I wish I would have traveled to X
- I wish I would have gotten married or...I wish I had never married :)
- I wish I would have tried harder at X
- I wish I could have found a job that I was passionate for
- I wish I would have spent more time with my spouse
- I wish I would have spent more time with my children
The list goes on and on, but there is one thing that people never, ever regret in their lives, and that is having children. People might regret how they got pregnant, or who they got pregnant with, or when they got pregnant, but no one ever regrets the child that results. In a world with so much uncertainty and conflict and lives where we often don’t know the correct path, there is one thing in this world where billions upon billions of people agree – there is nothing better in life than experiencing the love of a child. No one ever regrets having a child but I’m sure many regret later in their lives for not doing so.
Enough of the philosophy, here are some funny little things my son Josh (4 years old) has said to me lately:
Daddy, am I going to kiss girls when I grow up?
Daddy, you need to work more so you can buy me more toys.
A couple of weeks later…Daddy, you work too much.
What do you want to do when you grow up? I want to work on the computer and talk on the phone like Daddy.
Daddy, my “poopie” just burped.
Final Table PS $1K and Sharkapalooza II
Date: Wed, Feb 6, 2008 Professional Tournament Internet Live
I finished 8th in the PS $1K. This was my first time playing this tournament. Wow, the last 30 players or so were some really, really great players. I basically ran really good this tourney. I can't count how many AA and KK hands I had. So although I finished really good, I basically didn't do anything to screw it up, but fell way short of the really big money.
8th paid $9k and 1st paid almost 80K so disappointing. I was in great shape with 15 players left when the following hand came. A player raised, I called, and a short stack went allin behind me. I call with KK. His AK hit an A on the turn and I was now 13th in chips instead of 3rd in chips. After that, I basically played shortstack the entire time and I don't believe I got one premium hand after that. It took a LONG time to get from 15 to 8 players left. I was hanging in there with an M between 5 and 10 for a long time but slowly got blinded down. I went out with 54 vs AQ, after being probably too patient.
I signed up early tonight and then went to unregister, but UB already had me sitted in their tourney so I had to play :). I'm 9K richer so glad I did!
I haven't posted in a while. I was in Williamsburg on Friday with the boys and the grandparents. On Saturday I went to Sharkapalooza II. Nsidestrate, from the ITH forums, made his 20,000th post (I only have 5,000 posts to give you an idea) and he decided to make the post at his annual shindig. I played 3 tourneys and busted as I usually do in home games. Nside is a class act and he always makes sure to have guests which aren't - thanks Nut, Taz, Torch, Bull, Dust, and all of the others for a great time. There were about 20 people from the Forum and it was a blast. Everytime I go to these things I'm amazed at how well everyone gets along and how well you actually know people from simply posting on the Forum. Everyone actually seemed quite normal, although I'm not sure about Tara and Michelle, simply for the fact that they must have very strange taste in men. Great fun!
Disastrous Sunday
Date: Mon, Jan 28, 2008 Professional Tournament Internet Live
I was ready to go yesterday. Last week I final tabled the FTP 750K. On Wednesday, I had two cashes in 7 tourneys running fairly deep in both, and having lots of opportunities in the other tourneys I was in. I ate a healthy lunch. I even put on my ITH shirt to put me in poker mode! And then disaster struck.
I played 13 tourneys, not cashing in any of them. Being the math geek that I sometimes am, assuming I make the money 18% of the time, the odds that I don't cash in 13 tourneys is 4% or 1 in 25! I got to experience that agony yesterday. Not only didn't I cash, I really didn't come close. I was running good in the $100RB but finished about 20 spots from the money. That was the closest I got all day.
But I felt like I played well. I didn't tilt or start making any boneheaded plays. Of course in 13 tourneys, there are always some borderline hands where you aren't sure about your play and a few small mistakes here and there, but overall I felt like I was creating good opportunities for myself. Unfortunately I just wasn't getting many breaks.
One thing I thought yesterday is how play completely changes when you are against a tough field. This is why the railbirds sometimes say that XXX is a donkey. He called with that! He reraised with that! And in normal tourneys, maybe the play would be boneheaded. But against solid loose aggressive players, you often must take gambles where you might not otherwise.
For example, beginning to intermediate players try to steal the blinds a lot. Advanced players will often try to resteal, or simply put pressure on an opponent who has raised. Therefore, if you are the original raiser, you may do some things that you normal won't do. On occasion, you will go back over the top without a decent hand. You probably wouldn't do this against a "normal" player who probably is only reraising with premium hands, but against a really solid player who could easily be on a resteal, sometimes you must play back with less than stellar hands. Last night in the rebuy I made a standard raise with AQs. Another player reraised me. I started the hand with an M of 15. My opponent could have a premium hand, but there is also the possibility of a resteal in his range. For this reason, AQs goes up in value. It was a borderline play but I pushed allin and found myself against AK. I think the biggest mistake here was that I was in early position and most players are reluctant to resteal a player from EP so I should have given his reraise more respect, but I had also been relatively active so hard to tell.
I also learned a nice little lesson/tactic from another really good player. I made a standard raise to 300 and he called from the BB. The flop was Tc 4s 4c. He checks, I bet 330, he calls. The turn is the 2d. We both check. The river is the 6s. He checks, I bet 900, he puts me allin for another 1600.
I found his river play quite interesting. Most opponents would always bet out with a hand after I had checked the turn afraid that I wouldn't bet the river. But let's analyze the situation. On the turn, I either have nothing, or I am checking to control the size of the pot with a scary board. On the river, if he bets and I have nothing, I am going to fold. If I have something, I am likely to call something less that pot (which was $1200). But what if he checks? If I have a hand, I will likely bet for value. This isn't always true. If I have a hand like 88 I would probably check behind. But if I have a pair of tens beat, I am certainly going to bet. Once I bet and he raises, the pot has been built, and it becomes very difficult to fold, since my opponent played so deceptively - check, check...raise! I called with QQ and my opponent had 5-4. I don't like my call here, but the point of this hand is how my opponent got me to commit more chips to the pot than I wanted.
Of course, his strategy backfires when I check behind with a hand that I would call a bet with. But it is an interesting weapon to use on occasion and something I might experiment a little with in the right situations.
So a frustrating day, but I learned a little from my mistakes while still feeling satisfied with my overall play.
A Rare Weeknight Tourney Bonanza
Date: Thu, Jan 24, 2008 Professional Tournament Internet Live
After final tabling the FTP 750K a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't wait to get back to the tables. Unfortunately, I didn't get to play this past Sunday as I had a party to host. My stepfather turned 70. We were planning on a surprise party Saturday night, but it snowed, and anyone who lives in Atlanta knows that the entire city shuts down at the first inkling of a little snow. So we moved the party to Sunday and watched some football as well.
In any case, I decided to play last night. I didn't realize how many decent tournaments there are during the week. I managed to play 7 tournaments, all starting between 8-9:30. I could have played 8 but was running good in so many of them I decided to just skip the $55K at FTP at 9:30.
There are two rebuy tourneys. One at Stars and a $100 6-max at FTP. I'll need to check to see if that is a daily or weekly tournament as a very good tourney. I had a great table in the Stars RB tourney. I have played a few of these rebuys. I really thought these would be tough with the small fields, but so many of the players will do anything to try and doubleup, especially early. There is a great equity for those who are patient. I play simple solid poker and have done quite well in most of them I have played. Unfortunately, I ran into some bad luck and then towards the end of the rebuy period found myself against a couple of players going allin every hand. Unfortunately my hand either didn't hold up, or they finally had a real hand and I lost quite a few rebuys. I ended up investing $900 in the tourney. I went deep and cashed for $800, lol. I believe I finished something like 23rd and first paid $32K so had a decent chance at another nice payday.
I also ran deep in the FTP 55K that started at 8:00, finishing 22nd in that one. It also had a nice first place prize so I had two tourneys with a decent shot at some big money. Aside from those, I had my chances in a few of the other ones also running pretty deep but falling short of cashing. I felt really good about my game but just couldn't get anything going towards the end.
Other than that, I've been playing a little short-handed limit. I made a sick call in one hand with J-high which generated a lot of discussion in the Forum if you want to browse it. The Forum has some great short-handed players and this thread discusses a lot of different concepts beyond just my call on the river.
http://www.internettexasholdem.com/phpbb2/sickest-call-ive-made-in-a-long-time-vt57021.html
I should be getting an early start on Sunday as we have our monthly League tourney at ITH, and we are honoring one of our long-term Moderators who recently left the boards. Should be fun and hoping for another deep run!
Final Tables the FTP 750K
Date: Wed, Jan 16, 2008 Professional Tournament Internet Live
After coming quite close the last few months on Sunday, I finally broke through with a nice payday. That makes 2 10k+ paydays my last 10-12 Sundays. I finished 6th in the FTP 750K good for $26K.
Overall, I felt like I played quite well. Around the money, or early in the money, I do remember overbetting a hand with a QxxQ board. I had a flush draw and simply pushed allin on the turn which was a big overbet. I knew my opponent didn't have a Q and I was thinking about how much I should bet, but I didn't want to wait too long and just pushed. It was an inpatient move, but it worked out as my opponent called with 33 and I hit a pair on the river. I had a ton of outs but I should have played it differently. With 50 players to go, I had several opportunities to become the chip leader but kept falling on the wrong end of the cards. Once I lost AA to A7 in a big pot, all the money going in preflop. I lost another hand with QQ to the big blind when he flopped a flush on a K high board and I had the draw to the Q. I probably overplayed that hand also on the turn and got punished for it. Fortunately, I won several hands in a row quite quickly to get right back in it (one was a suckout with A6 vs AQ). After that, I settled down quite nicely and I think I played very well right up to the very end.
The hand that doomed me is still swirling around in my mind. I still haven't gone back to look at the exact chip counts in the hand history as I want to try and be as fresh and clear as possible when I reevaluate the hand. I think my first mistake was calling a raise from the big blind with 64s. I will often call raises with that hand, but I don't think this situation called for it. Sometimes I will call in the big blind with a relatively short stack, simply with the knowledge that I will gain the blinds, antes, and continuation bet should I hit my pair - and since I'm short-stacked I don't mind accepting defeat it that pair gets beat. I will also call when we both have very deep stacks hoping to hit a big hand. But that middling stack isn't the best hand for 64s and it cost me. The board was Kx4 and I check-raised all-in thinking he couldn't call without a K and I had outs if he did. He had K-Q and I lost the hand. It wasn't a horrendous play, but I think my stack size and advantage over the remaining opponents dictated that I didn't need to take that kind of risk.
But 26K is a nice consolation prize. Hopefully I can continue to run relatively deep in these tournaments and start turning them into bigger paydays.
A couple of non-poker tidbits. A mini-review of Atlantis. Great resort for kids! It's like Disney World on water. Unfortunately, there aren't that many family restaurants so that is a major drawback to me. Highly recommended though and we'll definitely be back.
Here's a silly little movie recommendation. If you're looking for an over-the-top shoot-em up, bad guy good guy movie, try Shoot-em Up with Clive Owen. Completely unrealistic and over-the-top, but a lot of fun.
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