Shark in ATL

The Sharkster is arriving in Atlanta tonight. He has some job interviews lined up this week. I didn't get to play much this weekend. I went to the George Jones concert Friday and worked out of town all weekend. Busy at work today so I will post more later...good luck this week

Good Job Shark

My friend "The Shark" made the final table today in an Omaha H/L MTT. He finished in a very respectable 9th place out of about 540 entrants. Way to go!!!
I'm playing the 40k guaranteed tonight. 2,188 entrants.
I barely missed qualifying for the super in a single table qualifier.(2nd place)
I think I will start playing these qualifiers more. I havn't played many big tournaments lately and I would like to play a few this month.
Mowenumdown has started a new job and I want to wish him the best of luck.
Ok, I just doubled up so I'm off to a nice start here. I'll post later if anything comes of it....cya

You Are Loser

I had a really good day today on the limit tables. I was hitting my hands hard on the flop and avoiding trouble hands. I was getting an unfair amount of good starting cards and I felt bulletproof all day....neat. One side effect that happens when you run super hot is the amount of negative comments you get from some of the other players. I received no less than five "f u" messages and several people said I was very lucky right now but must lose in the long run.(heh..0k) The most interesting of all was from a gentleman that had reloaded and went bust for the third time. The third time he busted I had AA against his KK and we capped every round. When the hand was over and I raked in the monster pot he simply typed in "You Are Loser". (if you say so)
I cleared 400 raked hands to release a bonus on Party today and during that time I won at a rate of 18 big bets per hour. I was playing strictly 6-max tables. I quintupled my buy-in amount and released the bonus for a very nice +EV day.
I won a sub-qualifier single table for the million dollar tourney but the 70 dollar tables are empty so I guess I will wait to play it. I would really like to play it tonight the way the day has gone.
I sweated kaellinn18 in his first stud MTT last night and he played very well finishing in the money. Good job sir.
Good luck at the tables this week everyone.

Final Table

I've made it to the final table.(see previous post for entrants, etc.) There are nine of us left at this moment. I'm a short stack with 87,878. The average is 227,111. The cards have been very cold and I have just been hanging in hoping they will improve. The blinds are quite large for my stack at 10,000/20,000 so I will be forced to make my move soon.
I'm out in 7th place. I feel I played well and there's only one hand I should have avoided that cost me some of my stack. 7th paid $600 so I'm glad to get that far.
Talk to you soon.........surf

Making a Run

I'm making a run in the 10+1 on party that started at 8:30 pm est.
The tourney started with 2,044 entrants.
His Sharkness placed 64th.
We are down to 53 peeps. The average stack is 38,500. I have 52,500.
I'll post again when I finish.

A Fun Little Exercise

If you are new to playing short-handed here's a fun little exercise for you to try.

Ingredient 1: A 6-max limit table with 3-4 players. Try to find a table with loose passive players. (That means they are calling a lot but there's not much raising pre-flop; everybody is playing their cards straight up from what you can tell)

Ingredient 2: Take a seat with at least 30 big bets or so worth of chips.

Ingredient 3: (Ok, here comes the really fun part) Start out playing regular just like them and look for hands to pick up when you don't have the cards. Make it a game to see how many hands you can bluff at and get without getting busted. Once you get busted and they see you had nothing, proceed to step 4.

Ingredient 4: Now you're going to go hyper-aggressive. Play the next hand as if you have pocket aces. Keep playing every hand like you have the nuts and push, push, push until you lose at least 5 or 6 big bets. (I have wiped out a few tables completely without this happening)

Ingredient 5: (Ok, the table hates you now, let's take their money) Now switch gears completely and look for premium hands only. Super tight. The rest of the table should be a little fired up now so you will get some action when you play a hand. Once you have shown a few very nice hands and won some big pots, move to step 6.

Ingredient 6: You should have a scary table image by now. They will perceive you as being a little crazy, but they can't discount the fact that you have shown the ability to play solid as well. If I get to this step and I'm down from my initial buy-in I leave the table. More often than not I am up at least 25% of my buy-in and I continue on. If you get to this point and continue on is in order, you can play some really fun poker. I like switch gears every 10 to 20 hands and play very erratically. (I like to think of it as being a pitcher with several good pitches and I'm just picking them off; curve when they think fast ball...change up when they think you're bringing the heat....fast ball in on their hands...etc...)

I'm killing the short-handed limit tables right now. I don't in any way guarantee this will work for you. You have to find what works for you. Good luck at the tables this week....surf

Mrs. Surf's Best MTT Finish

Mrs. Surf fired up the 1 buck MTT on Party today and played for about 5 hours. She finished 27th out of 2,073 entrants. She played very solid and found herself the short stack with about 75 players left. AA came her way and she tripled up and soon found herself amidst the average stacks with about 40,000 chips. She kept up the good play and made it to the final 3 tables. She got all her chips in with the best of it but the big stack sucked out on her and she was gone. Great job surpassing the 40th place finish not too long ago.
I had the opportunity to play a 3-table tourney with a friend on Party tonight that I hadn't seen for a while. Big shout-out to "The Rattla". Good seeing you friend. I hope you have a great 2006.

Internet-Free Weekend

I had a nice weekend and didn't let my internet being down affect my mood. Mrs. Surf and I took in a movie, went out to dinner, and began remodeling the office. I have established monthly goals to reach my limit goals this year. I have some really high goals and I'm not cutting myself any slack on limit this year. I have historically played a lot lower limits than my bankroll allows, so I plan on taking more chances this year and pushing the "limit", lol. With all seriousness, I will for now be playing some 2/4 and 3/6 but plan to step up to 5/10 and 10/20 on a regualar basis soon.
If you havn't signed up for the DADI Special Omaympics yet you should do so right away. Just check on the links to either TripJax or HighOnPoker on the right there and check the info.

Special Omalympics Prediction

My good friend His Sharkness specializes in Omaha Hi/Lo. I predict he will do very well in the tourney next week.
Mowenumdown has challenged me to "up" one of my goals and I will agree to do it. I said I wanted to play in a WSOP event this year. His challenge is for me to make the money. I'll accept this challenge because I have never before let him set his sights higher than mine so why start now....so my new goal #2 is -- Make the money in a WSOP event this year. There you go K; never let it be said I'm not up for the challenge.
I failed to mention a great effort by one of my friends last week. It was very painful to be talking to him when it happened. My friend Rags qualified in a semi-qualifier for the EWSOP trip. He played the qualifier last week. He played a flawless game. The top 7 made it. Spots 8,9, and 10 won between 1,250 and 500 bucks. He went out in 11th place. Great job Rags. You were so close... I know you are going to win something big soon; you are on top of your game sir.